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Greek and Roman Political Philosophy (Classics)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. In this bibliography “Greek and Roman political philosophy” is taken to mean philosophical reflection on politics in the Greco-Roman world from the 5th century BCE to the 5th century CE. More particularly, ancient political philosophy involves reflection on the establishment of political institutions and laws; the nature of political rule; central social and political concepts such as liberty, justice, and equality; the rights and duties of citizenship and its relationship to a flourishing human life; civic education; and the different possible forms of constitutions or regimes. Scholars frequently distinguish political philosophy from political thought. Political thought encompasses any thinking about politics at all and may be expressed through a wide range of media and literary forms, from epistles to comedy to inscriptions. Political philosophy represents thinking about politics that is more specifically theoretical and systematic in nature. Thus, political philosophy may be seen as a subset of political thought. Because this bibliography is concerned with the narrower of the two categories, it focuses primarily on philosophers and theoretical discourse. This focus also informs the general organization of this entry, which adopts a chronological, author-by-author approach rather than the thematic approach sometimes utilized by historians of political thought. This bibliography covers Early Greek, Athenian, Hellenistic, Roman, and Early Christian political philosophy, extending from the Presocratics to St. Augustine.
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  5. General Overviews
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  7. The most comprehensive survey of Greek and Roman political philosophy is Rowe and Schofield 2000. Balot 2009 takes a thematic approach. Lane 2011 is a brief but useful summary of the field and is freely accessible online. Coleman 2000 provides an overview of the main texts encountered by students in university courses concerned with the history of Greek and Roman political philosophy. Balot 2006 offers students an introduction to Greek political thought. Keyt and Miller 2007 is a collection of thematic essays dealing with Greek political philosophy.
  8.  
  9. Balot, Ryan K. 2006. Greek political thought. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
  10. DOI: 10.1002/9780470774618Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  11. Introduces students to the major (and many minor) characters and central themes of ancient Greek political thought. Interprets Greek political thought from a type of virtue ethics perspective. A concluding bibliographic essay provides useful references for those new to the field.
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  13. Balot, Ryan K., ed. 2009. A companion to Greek and Roman political thought. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
  14. DOI: 10.1002/9781444310344Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  15. Designed to introduce students and teachers working in the disciplines of classics, philosophy, history, and political science to the most-important concepts in Greek and Roman political thought. It is the most comprehensive introduction to take a thematic rather than chronological approach to the topic. Has an extensive bibliography.
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  17. Coleman, Janet. 2000. A history of political thought. Vol. 1, From ancient Greece to early Christianity. Oxford: Blackwell.
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  19. A textbook for university-level courses on the history of Western political thought. Gives social and philosophical background to accompany readings of primary texts and explains core concepts. The organization is focused primarily on key figures (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and St. Augustine) but also has sections on historical context (ancient Athenian democracy, Roman Republic, and Christianity).
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  21. Keyt, David, and Fred D. Miller Jr., eds. 2007. Freedom, reason, and the polis: Essays in ancient Greek political philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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  23. These twelve essays explore central questions in ancient political philosophy. Ten of the twelve papers focus on the works of Plato and Aristotle.
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  25. Lane, Melissa. 2011. Ancient political philosophy. In The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Edited by Edward N. Zalta.
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  27. Brief overview of the field and select bibliography. A good and easily accessible online source.
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  29. Rowe, Christopher, and Malcolm Schofield, eds. 2000. The Cambridge history of Greek and Roman political thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  30. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521481366Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  31. The most important reference work in the area of Greek and Roman political philosophy and political thought. Most essays are accessible to advanced undergraduates but will also be of interest to scholars.
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  33. Sources
  34.  
  35. The sources for Greek and Roman political philosophy (though not necessarily for “political thought”) are literary texts (see Introduction for the distinction between “political thought” and “political philosophy”). The standard Greek and Latin editions for most Classical texts cited in this bibliography are available in the Oxford Classical Texts series. The Loeb Classical Library series, published by Harvard University Press in the United States and by William Heinemann in London, provides Greek and Latin texts for most Classical authors referenced in this bibliography, as well as for select Early Christian writers. The Loeb series also contains facing English translations of the Greek or Latin; however, the quality of translation varies greatly by volume. The series Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought provides translations for many of the major authors. Cooper in Plato 1997 conveniently provides translations of Plato’s works. Barnes does the same for Aristotle in Aristotle 1984. Texts and translations for relevant Presocratic, Hellenistic, and Early Christian political philosophers are included in sections under their respective headings. The same is true of Cicero’s Republic (De republica), owing to its unique manuscript tradition.
  36.  
  37. Aristotle. 1984. The complete works of Aristotle: The revised Oxford translation. Rev. ed. 2 vols. Edited and translated by Jonathan Barnes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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  39. A standard English translation of Aristotle’s works. The most-relevant works for Aristotle’s political philosophy are included in Volume 2.
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  41. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. 1988–. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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  43. Provides introductions, bibliography, select notes, and translations for the works of such Greek and Roman political philosophers as the Presocratics, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, and St. Augustine.
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  45. Plato. 1997. Plato: Complete works. Edited by John M. Cooper. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.
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  47. English translations of Plato’s works, by many different translators, collected in a single volume.
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  49. The Intellectual Background
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  51. Greek and Roman political philosophy did not occur in a vacuum, but in the context of particular political cultures and against the background of various social and intellectual developments. A number of important works helpfully treat this intellectual background to Greek and Roman political philosophy. Dodds 1951 is a seminal work exploring the place of nonrational experiences in Greek culture. Finley 1983 provides a comparative analysis of politics in Athens, Sparta, and Rome. Meier 1990 explores the conditions that produced democracies in Greece. Vernant 1982 relates the development of Greek political philosophy to social and political changes; Moatti 1997 attempts something similar for the Roman Republic. Rawson 1985 provides a comprehensive analysis of intellectual developments in Republican Rome. Cartledge 2009 provides an overview of the history of Greek political thought that is especially accessible for students.
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  53. Cartledge, Paul. 2009. Ancient Greek political thought in practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  54. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511801747Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  55. This brief work provides students and nonspecialists with an introduction to ancient Greek political thought in its historical context from 1300 BCE to 120 CE. Special attention is devoted to the following three topics: the relationship between political thought and action, the relevance of class for explaining political behavior, and the rise and decline of democracy.
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  57. Dodds, E. R. 1951. The Greeks and the irrational. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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  59. This classic work explores the sensitivity of Greeks to nonrational experiences, from the Homeric world to the Hellenistic age. Among the first to apply the categories “shame culture” and “guilt culture” to the study of Greek thought.
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  61. Finley, Moses I. 1983. Politics in the ancient world. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  62. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511612893Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  63. A comparative analysis of the political history of Athens, Sparta, and Rome. Finley explores to what extent these political societies were popular and participatory, and whether they successfully managed conflict between wealthy and poor.
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  65. Meier, Christian. 1990. The Greek discovery of politics. Translated by David McLintock. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
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  67. Originally published as Die Entstehung des Politischen bei den Griechen (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1980). Seeks to explain why Greece in particular produced democracies and how the Greeks conceived of politics.
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  69. Moatti, Claudia. 1997. La raison de Rome: Naissance de l’esprit critique à la fin de la République. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.
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  71. Provides an ambitious account of the social and political conditions that led to the intellectual revolution of the late Roman Republic.
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  73. Rawson, Elizabeth. 1985. Intellectual life in the late Roman Republic. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
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  75. Provides an encyclopedic account of Roman work in medicine, architecture, grammar, rhetoric, law, historiography, geography, and philosophy.
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  77. Vernant, Jean-Pierre. 1982. The origins of Greek thought. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.
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  79. Originally published as Les origines de la pensée grecque (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1962). A classic work that relates the rise of Greek philosophy and political thought to its changing social environment, in particular the transition from Mycenaean society to the city-state.
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  81. The Athenian Context
  82.  
  83. Ancient political philosophy began in democratic Athens in the 5th century BCE. A number of works have explored the Athenian context that gave birth to political philosophy. Farrar 1988 goes behind the critics of democracy to look at early democratic theorists. Saxonhouse 1996 examines the concept of democracy in terms suggested by the ancient sources. Ober 1998 examines Athenian democracy’s critics. Balot 2001 looks at greed in Athenian political thought. Allen 2000 examines Athenian politics through the lens of punishment.
  84.  
  85. Allen, Danielle S. 2000. The world of Prometheus: The politics of punishing in democratic Athens. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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  87. This book not only examines the process of punishing but also illuminates Athenian notions of such political concepts as authority and desert.
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  89. Balot, Ryan K. 2001. Greed and injustice in classical Athens. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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  91. An intellectual history of greed in Athenian political thought and discourse, from roughly 600 to 300 BCE. Looks at the concept in the works of Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, and Aristotle, among others.
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  93. Farrar, Cynthia. 1988. The origins of democratic thinking: The invention of politics in classical Athens. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  94. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511552489Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  95. Explores the democratic political thought espoused by Protagoras, Thucydides, and Democritus. Pays special attention to the political context of these thinkers.
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  97. Ober, Josiah. 1998. Political dissent in democratic Athens: Intellectual critics of popular rule. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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  99. Argues that Greek political theory was written by members of a competitive elite who vied with one another to articulate criticisms of popular rule in response to the increased importance and number of democrats. Explores the “Old Oligarch,” Thucydides, Aristophanes, Plato, Isocrates, and Aristotle.
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  101. Saxonhouse, Arlene W. 1996. Athenian democracy: Modern mythmakers and ancient theorists. Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame Univ. Press.
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  103. An examination of ancient democracy and its critics, by a leading political theorist. Seeks to remove encrustations left by a later tradition of commentators and to approach the topic of ancient democracy in terms posed by the ancients.
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  105. Presocratic Political Philosophy
  106.  
  107. The so-called Presocratic philosophers were Greek thinkers of the 6th and 5th centuries BCE who were not influenced by Socrates. Of these philosophers, Democritus and the Sophists were most concerned with political matters.
  108.  
  109. Texts and Translations
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  111. The standard edition both for the fragments of Democritus and the Greek texts of the 5th-century Sophists is Diels and Kranz 1952. Gagarin and Woodruff 1995 provides translations of texts from Democritus and the Sophists relevant to political thought.
  112.  
  113. Diels, Hermann, and Walther Kranz. 1952. Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker. 6th ed. Berlin: Weidmann.
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  115. Contains the Greek texts both for Democritus and the 5th-century Sophists. Republished as recently as 2004 (Zurich, Switzerland: Weidmann).
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  117. Gagarin, Michael, and Paul Woodruff, eds. and trans. 1995. Early Greek political thought from Homer to the Sophists. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  118. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511805479Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  119. A generous collection of texts related to early Greek political thought, translated into English. Contains evidence for the political thought both of Democritus and the Sophists. Includes a brief introduction, bibliography, and table matching the English texts with the Greek equivalents in Diels and Kranz 1952.
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  121. Democritus
  122.  
  123. Democritus was from Abdera, though sources report that he traveled widely and may have visited Athens. Scholars know of his views on ethics and politics only from doxography and collections of purported quotations. Farrar 1988 treats Democritus as a democratic theorist. Taylor 2007 discusses nomos and phusis in Democritus’s political philosophy. Procopé 1989 and Procopé 1990 examine Democritus’s recipe for a stable political order.
  124.  
  125. Farrar, Cynthia. 1988. The origins of democratic thinking: The invention of politics in classical Athens. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  126. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511552489Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  127. Farrar’s chapter on Democritus examines the philosopher’s attempt to establish a connection between the individual good and the good of society.
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  129. Procopé, J. F. 1989. Democritus on politics and the care of the soul. Classical Quarterly, n.s., 39.2: 307–331.
  130. DOI: 10.1017/S0009838800037381Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  131. Argues that Democritus’s recipe for a stable political order is to ensure that citizens avoid harmful desires.
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  133. Procopé, J. F. 1990. Democritus on politics and the care of the soul: Appendix. Classical Quarterly, n.s., 40.1: 21–45.
  134. DOI: 10.1017/S0009838800026781Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  135. An appendix with text and commentary.
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  137. Taylor, C. C. W. 2007. Nomos and phusis in Democritus and Plato. Social Philosophy and Policy 24.2: 1–20.
  138. DOI: 10.1017/S0265052507070148Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  139. Argues that in his moral and political philosophy Democritus holds moral conventions to be grounded in human nature.
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  141. The Sophists
  142.  
  143. The Sophists were itinerant teachers who came to prominence in Athens in the second half of the 5th century BCE. Topics of particular interest to them included law, justice, and democracy. Kerferd 1981 provides a comprehensive interpretation of the Sophistic movement. Guthrie 1971 is still the standard reference work on the Sophists. Gagarin 2002 provides an account of the thought of the Sophist Antiphon. Farrar 1988 (cited under Democritus) also includes a chapter on the Sophist Protagoras. Classen 1976 is a collection of papers on the Sophistic movement and individual Sophists. Taylor and Lee 2012 provides a brief overview of the topic and is freely accessible online.
  144.  
  145. Classen, Carl Joachim. 1976. Sophistik. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
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  147. A collection of articles on the Sophists, in German and English. Includes general discussions of the Sophistic movement as well as sections devoted to individual Sophists.
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  149. Gagarin, Michael. 2002. Antiphon the Athenian: Oratory, law, and justice in the age of the Sophists. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
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  151. Argues that Antiphon the logographer is the identical with the Sophist who wrote on law, justice, and nature.
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  153. Guthrie, W. K. C. 1971. The Sophists. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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  155. This treatment of the Sophists was originally published as part of Vol. 3 of A history of Greek philosophy (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1969). This is the standard reference work on the topic. It combines a thematic approach with biographies of individual Sophists.
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  157. Kerferd, George B. 1981. The Sophistic movement. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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  159. Provides a reinterpretation of Sophistic thought as a whole. Argues that the Sophists deserve to be treated as serious and innovative philosophers with important teachings.
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  161. Taylor, C. C. W., and Mi-Kyoung Lee. 2012. The Sophists. In The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Edited by Edward N. Zalta.
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  163. Brief overview of the Sophist movement and select bibliography. A good and easily accessible online source.
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  165. Socrates
  166.  
  167. Socrates was the 5th-century BCE Athenian philosopher who, according to Cicero, “first called philosophy down from heaven and placed her in cities.” Scholars generally follow Cicero in crediting Socrates as the founder of Greek political philosophy.
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  169. The Socratic Problem
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  171. Socrates famously wrote nothing. He appears most prominently in the works of two of his students, Plato and Xenophon, and in the work of the comic playwright Aristophanes. This fact has led to the so-called Socratic problem: how can scholars determine the philosophical views of the historical Socrates? Schleiermacher 1987 is the seminal modern paper on the topic. Vlastos 1991 presents the approach to the question by one influential scholar of Plato. Dorion 2011 provides a balanced overview of the history of the Socratic problem.
  172.  
  173. Dorion, Louis-André. 2011. The rise and fall of the Socratic problem. In The Cambridge companion to Socrates. Edited by Donald R. Morrison, 1–23. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  174. DOI: 10.1017/CCOL9780521833424Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  175. Good and accessible introduction to the history and status quaestionis of the “Socratic Problem.”
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  177. Schleiermacher, Friedrich. 1987. Über den Werth des Sokrates als Philosophen. In Der historische Sokrates. Edited by Andreas Patzer, 41–58. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
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  179. Seminal article that scholars usually credit with forming the terms of discussion of the modern Socratic problem. Originally published in 1818.
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  181. Vlastos, Gregory. 1991. Socrates: Ironist and moral philosopher. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.
  182. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511518508Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  183. Restatement of Vlastos’s influential (though controversial) theory that the Socrates of the early Platonic dialogues is the “historical Socrates,” while downplaying the evidence of Aristophanes and Xenophon.
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  185. Plato’s Socrates
  186.  
  187. Although Socrates appeared in the vast majority of Plato’s dialogues, scholarship concerned with the political philosophy of “Plato’s Socrates” has tended to focus especially on the so-called early dialogues, including the Crito and Apology. These two dialogues, along with Plato’s Republic, are the focus of the accessible overview of the topic in Griswold 2011. Brickhouse and Smith 1994 provides a thematic approach to Socrates’s philosophy as portrayed in Plato’s early dialogues. Kraut 1984 is an important study of Socrates’s political thought, especially as revealed in the Crito. Weiss 1998 presents an alternative interpretation of the Crito. Zuckert 2009 presents the case for arranging Plato’s dialogues in order of their dramatic dates. Although Zuckert’s approach will remain controversial, it deals at length with the moral and political philosophy of Plato’s Socrates and explores why Plato made Socrates his hero.
  188.  
  189. Brickhouse, Thomas C., and Nicholas D. Smith. 1994. Plato’s Socrates. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  191. A study of the Socratic philosophy found in the early Platonic dialogues. Organized by major themes in Socratic thinking: method, epistemology, psychology, ethics, politics, and religion.
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  193. Griswold, Charles L. 2011. Socrates’ political philosophy. In The Cambridge companion to Socrates. Edited by Donald R. Morrison, 333–354. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  194. DOI: 10.1017/CCOL9780521833424Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  195. This essay focuses on the political philosophy of Plato’s Socrates as seen particularly in Plato’s Apology, Crito, and The Republic. It also has a brief bibliography of select works for further reading. A good starting place for students.
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  197. Kraut, Richard. 1984. Socrates and the state. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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  199. An account of Socrates’s political thought as found in the early Platonic dialogues, especially the Crito. Argues that Socrates is less authoritarian than most commentators allow: compromise between citizen and the state trumps blind obedience.
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  201. Weiss, Roslyn. 1998. Socrates dissatisfied: An analysis of Plato’s Crito. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  202. DOI: 10.1093/0195116844.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  203. Presents a detailed defense of the position that the Crito presents the personified laws as representing not Socrates’s own views but those of his adversary, the authoritarian perspective of Athens. Socrates in turn represents the perspective of the agent whose decisions are formed by autonomous rational calculations.
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  205. Zuckert, Catherine H. 2009. Plato’s philosophers: The coherence of the dialogues. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
  206. DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226993386.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  207. Reads the dialogues in order of dramatic date rather than date of composition. Provides in-depth readings of individual dialogues.
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  209. Xenophon’s Socrates
  210.  
  211. Although scholars have tended to privilege Plato’s Socrates, Xenophon’s treatment of Socrates in his Apology, Memorabilia, Oeconomicus, and Symposium is increasingly receiving attention. Strauss 1970 and Strauss 1972 are commentaries on Xenophon’s Socratic works. Strauss attempts to rehabilitate the reputation of Xenophon’s Socrates as an important political thinker. Dorion 2006 is an accessible and short overview of Xenophon’s Socrates. Gray 1998 is a detailed study of Xenophon’s treatment of Socratic dialectic in the Memorabilia. Gish and Ambler 2009 includes several papers on the political philosophy of Xenophon’s Socrates. Narcy and Tordesillas 2008 is an important collection of French papers on Xenophon’s Socrates.
  212.  
  213. Dorion, Louis-André. 2006. Xenophon’s Socrates. In A companion to Socrates. Edited by Sara Ahbel-Rappe and Rachana Kamtekar, 93–109. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
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  215. Brief introduction to Xenophon’s Socrates, with basic bibliography. Accessible to students.
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  217. Gish, Dustin A., and Wayne Ambler, eds. 2009. The political thought of Xenophon. Polis 26.2. Exeter, UK: Imprint Academic.
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  219. Selection of papers on Xenophon’s political thought, originating in the Northeastern Political Science Association. Several papers are devoted to Xenophon’s Socrates.
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  221. Gray, Vivienne J. 1998. The framing of Socrates: The literary interpretation of Xenophon’s Memorabilia. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.
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  223. An examination of Xenophon’s treatment of Socratic dialectic, with special attention to the literary context by which it is framed.
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  225. Narcy, Michel, and Alonso Tordesillas, eds. 2008. Xénophon et Socrate: Actes du colloque d’Aix-en-Provence (6–9 novembre 2003). Bibliothèque d’Histoire de la Philosophie: Nouvelle Série. Paris: J. Vrin.
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  227. This collection of papers in French focuses on Xenophon’s treatment of Socrates in the Memorabilia and Oeconomicus. Individual papers deal with a variety of topics related to Xenophon’s Socrates, including moral psychology, religion, dialectic, politics, economics, and the Socratic problem. Includes a complete bibliography of scholarship on Xenophon for the period 1984–2008.
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  229. Strauss, Leo. 1970. Xenophon’s Socratic discourse: An interpretation of the Oeconomicus. Translated by Carnes Lord. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.
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  231. A translation of Xenophon’s Oeconomicus by Carnes Lord, with commentary by Leo Strauss. Strauss argues that Xenophon’s Socratic writings should be “the primary source for our knowledge of Socrates” (p. 83).
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  233. Strauss, Leo. 1972. Xenophon’s Socrates. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.
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  235. The sequel to Strauss 1970. A commentary on Xenophon’s Memorabilia, Apology, and Symposium. Strauss attempts to rehabilitate Xenophon’s reputation as a writer and political thinker and as an indispensable source for discovering “the true Socrates.”
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  237. Collections of Essays
  238.  
  239. A number of recent collections of essays and companions treating Socrates in the writings of Plato, Xenophon, and Aristophanes have appeared in recent years. Vander Waerdt 1994 is the first of these and includes several essays of value for scholars working on Socrates’s political philosophy. Both Ahbel-Rappe and Kamtekar 2006 and Morrison 2011 include multiple essays on relevant aspects of Socrates as a political philosopher.
  240.  
  241. Ahbel-Rappe, Sara, and Rachana Kamtekar, eds. 2006. A companion to Socrates. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
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  243. A large collection of essays dedicated to Gregory Vlastos, and many of these follow his approach to the Socrates of the Platonic dialogues. The first part deals with Socrates in Antiquity, the second with Socrates’s reception from the Middle Ages to Modernity. Essays are in depth and more designed for the scholar.
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  245. Morrison, Donald R., ed. 2011. The Cambridge companion to Socrates. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  246. DOI: 10.1017/CCOL9780521833424Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  247. This volume includes essays treating Socrates from a wide range of approaches. Although only one essay is explicitly devoted to Socrates’s political philosophy, several others will also be of value to students and scholars alike interested in Socrates as a political philosopher.
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  249. Vander Waerdt, Paul A., ed. 1994. The Socratic movement. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.
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  251. An important collection of essays by leading scholars. Contributions include a number of essays of interest for scholars of Socrates’s political thought and its reception in Hellenistic philosophy.
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  253. Xenophon
  254.  
  255. Apart from his value as a source for the political philosophy of Socrates, Xenophon has received increased attention as a political thinker in his own right. There are a couple of short introductions to Xenophon’s political philosophy: Bruell 1987 focuses on the Cyropaedia, Memorabilia, and Anabasis, while Gray 2000 offers an accessible thematic approach to Xenophon’s political thought.
  256.  
  257. Bruell, Christopher. 1987. Xenophon. In History of political philosophy. 3d ed. Edited by Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey, 90–117. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
  258. DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226924717.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  259. Attempts to understand Xenophon’s Socratic works in relation to his other political writings. Argues that “Cyrus” and “Socrates” represent two alternative approaches to the best way of life, which are brought together in the Anabasis.
  260. Find this resource:
  261. Gray, V. J. 2000. Xenophon and Isocrates. In The Cambridge history of Greek and Roman political thought. Edited by Christopher J. Rowe and Malcolm Schofield, 142–154. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  262. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521481366Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  263. A thematic approach to Xenophon’s political thought that focuses on democracy, political rule, Sparta, and Panhellenism. Suitable for undergraduates.
  264. Find this resource:
  265. Collections of Essays
  266.  
  267. Gish and Ambler 2009 is a collection of essays on the topic of Xenophon’s political thought. Narcy and Tordesillas 2008, though focusing primarily on Xenophon’s Socrates, is also relevant for those interested in Xenophon’s political thought.
  268.  
  269. Gish, Dustin, and Wayne Ambler, eds. 2009. Special issue: The political thought of Xenophon. Polis 26.2.
  270. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  271. A special issue of the journal Polis dedicated to Xenophon’s political thought. Brings together scholars from multiple academic disciplines. Several articles deal with the topic of Xenophon’s Socrates, but others concentrate on Xenophon’s political thought in other matters.
  272. Find this resource:
  273. Narcy, Michel, and Alonso Tordesillas, eds. 2008. Xénophon et Socrate: Actes du colloque d’Aix-en-Provence (6–9 novembre 2003). Bibliothèque d’Histoire de la Philosophie: Nouvelle Série. Paris: J. Vrin.
  274. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  275. A collection of papers in French that investigate Xenophon’s portrayal of Socrates and Socratic philosophy. Designed for scholars of Xenophon and his philosophy. The bibliography on Xenophon is quite complete for the period 1984–2008.
  276. Find this resource:
  277. Studies of Individual Works
  278.  
  279. In recent years Xenophon’s non-Socratic works have received increased scholarly attention, just like his writings featuring Socrates (for Xenophon’s Socratic works, see Xenophon’s Socrates). A number of studies bearing on Xenophon’s political thought focus on the Cyropaedia. Gera 1993 situates the work in its literary and political contexts. Tatum 1989 explores the interplay between fiction and politics in the Cyropaedia. Nadon 2001 argues that the Cyropaedia does not present an ideal ruler but offers a critique of Cyrus’s rule. Gray 2011 counters by arguing that Xenophon’s praise of leaders across his writings should be taken at face value. Strauss 1991 remains the only book-length study in English of the Hiero. Xenophon 2007 includes an introduction to Xenophon’s views of government and commentary on the Hiero, Constitution of the Spartans, and the pseudo-Xenophantic Constitution of the Athenians.
  280.  
  281. Gera, Deborah Levine. 1993. Xenophon’s Cyropaedia: Style, genre, and literary technique. Oxford: Clarendon.
  282. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  283. Places the Cyropaedia in its context, both in Xenophon’s corpus and within Greek literature as a whole. However, also concerned about the work as a contribution to political theory in Xenophon’s own time. Cyrus is considered the ideal leader through his philanthropia and enkrateia.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. Gray, Vivienne J. 2011. Xenophon’s mirror of princes: Reading the reflections. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  286. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  287. An examination of Xenophon’s reflection on political leadership both in the Socratic works and in the Anabasis and Cyropaedia. Argues against the readings of Strauss and others who find a subversive message beneath the surface praise of leaders.
  288. Find this resource:
  289. Nadon, Christopher. 2001. Xenophon’s prince: Republic and empire in the Cyropaedia. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  290. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  291. A study of the Cyropaedia indebted to the work of Leo Strauss. Nadon argues that Xenophon’s Cyrus is not intended to portray an ideal ruler. Rather, the Cyrus presented is a shrewd politician more concerned with gaining power than being a good man.
  292. Find this resource:
  293. Strauss, Leo. 1991. On tyranny. Edited by Victor Gourevitch and Michael S. Roth. New York: Free Press.
  294. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  295. A revised and expanded edition of Strauss’s study of Xenophon’s Hiero, first published in 1948. This edition also includes a critical review of Strauss’s work by Alexandre Kojève, Strauss’s response, and subsequent correspondence between the two.
  296. Find this resource:
  297. Tatum, James. 1989. Xenophon’s imperial fiction: On the Education of Cyrus. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
  298. DOI: 10.1515/9781400860036Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  299. A study of the interplay between fiction and politics in Xenophon’s Cyropaedia. The introduction provides a useful overview of the Cyropaedia’s reception. The bulk of the work deals with how Cyrus manipulates others to gain control over Persia. The author also claims that Xenophon’s critique of modern Persia is a function of Xenophon’s cyclical model of politics.
  300. Find this resource:
  301. Xenophon. 2007. Xenophon on government. Edited by Vivienne J. Gray. Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  302. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  303. Contains the Greek texts for Xenophon’s dialogue on tyranny (the Hiero) and treatises on the constitutions of Athens and Sparta. Includes an introduction to Xenophon’s constitutional theory, commentary, and bibliography. Suitable for advanced undergraduates.
  304. Find this resource:
  305. Plato
  306.  
  307. Socrates’s most famous student wrote several philosophical dialogues related to various aspects of politics. Of these, this bibliography focuses in particular on The Republic, Statesman, and Laws—and on Plato’s treatment of democracy. Klosko 2006, Schofield 2006, and Blitz 2010 are recent overviews of Plato’s political thought. All three are written to be accessible to nonspecialist audiences. Klosko 2006 is a revision of a long-standing and well-regarded introduction to Plato’s political thought. It takes a developmentalist approach that assumes important changes in Plato’s political thought throughout the dialogues. Schofield 2006 focuses primarily on The Republic, Statesman, and Laws and brings Plato into conversation with more-recent political philosophers on a number of central political concepts. Blitz 2010 takes a unitarian approach and emphasizes a close reading of individual dialogues.
  308.  
  309. Blitz, Mark. 2010. Plato’s political philosophy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
  310. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  311. A synoptic approach to Plato’s political philosophy that combines close readings of individual dialogues with discussion of such central themes in Plato’s political thought as virtue, law, the relationship between philosophy and politics, and the rule of reason and its limits. Though centered on the Laws, The Republic, and Statesman, this book touches on virtually all of Plato’s dialogues.
  312. Find this resource:
  313. Klosko, George. 2006. The development of Plato’s political theory. 2d ed. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  314. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  315. Revision of first edition of this long-standing introduction to Plato’s political philosophy. Developmentalist approach to Plato’s thought focuses on Plato’s Republic (Plato’s thought at its most idealistic) and presents the Statesman and Laws as a type of decline from idealism to realism.
  316. Find this resource:
  317. Schofield, Malcolm. 2006. Plato: Political philosophy. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  318. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  319. A thematic approach to Plato’s political thought, this work covers Plato’s treatment of democracy, the rule of knowledge, utopia, money, and ideology. It also seeks to bring Plato’s thought into conversation with prominent thinkers throughout the history of political thought. Written with students in mind, but specialists in Plato’s political philosophy will also find it stimulating.
  320. Find this resource:
  321. Collections of Essays
  322.  
  323. A number of collections of essays on topics relevant for those working on Plato’s political philosophy have appeared in recent years. Of these, Benson 2006 is perhaps most accessible to those who are new to Plato. Fine 2008 is best suited to advanced students and scholars working in the Anglophone analytic tradition of philosophy. Fine 1999 provides an accessible collection of classic scholarly articles related to Plato’s treatment of ethics and politics.
  324.  
  325. Benson, Hugh H., ed. 2006. A companion to Plato. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
  326. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  327. A large collection of essays, written by leading scholars of ancient philosophy, dealing with the major issues in Platonic scholarship: Plato and Socrates, the dialogue form, epistemology, metaphysics, psychology, ethics, politics, and reception. Designed for serious students of Plato, but also accessible to first-time readers of Plato.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Fine, Gail, ed. 1999. Plato 2: Ethics, politics, religion, and the soul. Oxford Readings in Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  330. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  331. A collection of previously published essays chosen for their importance to the field over the previous few decades. The introduction is a useful overview of Platonic studies. The articles fall within the Anglophone analytical philosophy tradition. Most useful for scholars and advanced students.
  332. Find this resource:
  333. Fine, Gail, ed. 2008. The Oxford handbook of Plato. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  334. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195182903.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  335. Designed for the advanced student and scholar. Organized in four parts: preliminaries to Plato, central themes, individual dialogues, and reception. Primarily addresses philosophical issues that arise across the Platonic corpus. Essays address current trends of thought in Platonic scholarship.
  336. Find this resource:
  337. Plato and Democracy
  338.  
  339. Plato engaged with Athenian democracy throughout his writings. Samaras 2002 attempts to trace Plato’s changing attitudes toward democracy throughout his dialogues. Ober 1998 has a lengthy chapter exploring criticisms of democracy in four Platonic dialogues. Monoson 2000 argues that Platonic political philosophy and Athenian democratic values and practice are intimately connected. Euben, et al. 1994 is a collection of essays that includes several on Plato and democracy.
  340.  
  341. Euben, J. Peter, John R. Wallach, and Josiah Ober, eds. 1994. Athenian political thought and the reconstruction of American democracy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.
  342. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  343. A collection of papers divided into three sections: democracy and regimes of power, critical discourse in Athenian democracy, and Athenian ideals and contemporary issues. The editors believe that Athenian political practice serves as a place for educating a contemporary audience about democracy. Contains several essays on Plato’s relationship to democratic Athens.
  344. Find this resource:
  345. Monoson, S. Sara. 2000. Plato’s democratic entanglements: Athenian politics and the practice of philosophy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
  346. DOI: 10.1515/9781400823741Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  347. Argues that Plato is not the virulent antidemocrat he is often made out to be. Plato’s political thought and Athenian democratic ideals and practice are intimately interconnected.
  348. Find this resource:
  349. Ober, Josiah. 1998. Political dissent in democratic Athens: Intellectual critics of popular rule. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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  351. Includes a lengthy chapter on Plato’s Apology, Crito, Gorgias, and The Republic. Argues that the failure of a Socratic politics based on open criticism of Athenian democratic society leads to the foundationalist project of The Republic.
  352. Find this resource:
  353. Samaras, Thanassis. 2002. Plato on democracy. New York: Peter Lang.
  354. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  355. Traces the development of Plato from critic of democracy to proponent of (Solonian) democracy in his ideal city. Views Plato’s Laws as the summation of his mature thinking. Arranged chronologically. Engages with a large amount of Anglo-American scholarship on Platonic political philosophy.
  356. Find this resource:
  357. The Republic
  358.  
  359. Plato’s best-known dialogue dealing with matters of political philosophy. The bibliography for this work alone is massive. Annas 1981 is an introduction to Plato’s Republic for philosophy students. White 1979 provides a commentary with book-by-book summary. Reeve 1988 is written primarily for philosophers and seeks to show that The Republic is a philosophically unified work. Strauss 1964 is an influential, though controversial, account that emphasizes the importance of the dialogue form in interpretation. Rosen 2005 is a recent and challenging dialogical reading of the work. Vegetti 1998–2007 is a seven-volume scholarly commentary on The Republic.
  360.  
  361. Annas, Julia. 1981. An introduction to Plato’s Republic. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
  362. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  363. An introduction to Plato’s Republic for students of philosophy.
  364. Find this resource:
  365. Reeve, C. D. C. 1988. Philosopher-kings: The argument of Plato’s Republic. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
  366. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  367. Provides a reinterpretation of the dialogue in order to show its coherence, which Reeve finds in Plato’s psychology. In the process he addresses several common interpretive myths, including the view that The Republic is a totalitarian work and that Plato’s account of justice is obviated through equivocating on the notion of justice.
  368. Find this resource:
  369. Rosen, Stanley. 2005. Plato’s Republic: A study. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.
  370. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  371. A challenging dialogical reading that argues Plato’s main goal is to show the tyranny resulting in rule of philosophy or wisdom. Rosen’s method of interpretation falls within the tradition of reading Plato promoted by Strauss (though his interpretation departs from Strauss’s).
  372. Find this resource:
  373. Strauss, Leo. 1964. On Plato’s Republic. In The city and man. By Leo Strauss, 50–138. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
  374. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  375. A reading of The Republic that emphasizes the importance of the dialogue form and distances Plato from the ideal city in Book 5. Plato’s Republic is an anti-utopian work that reveals the essential limits of the city. Reprinted in English as recently as 2005.
  376. Find this resource:
  377. Vegetti, Mario, ed. 1998–2007. La Repubblica. 7 vols. Naples, Italy: Bibliopolis.
  378. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  379. A massive seven-volume scholarly commentary in Italian on Plato’s Republic. Each volume is the product of multiple hands.
  380. Find this resource:
  381. White, Nicholas P. 1979. A companion to Plato’s Republic. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.
  382. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  383. A commentary of the text of The Republic designed for first-time readers but also of value for the experienced scholar. Introductory chapters lay out the main themes of the work and are followed by book-by-book summaries.
  384. Find this resource:
  385. Collections of Essays
  386.  
  387. A number of collections of essays and papers on Plato’s Republic have appeared in recent years. Most of these have essays that bear on the work’s political philosophy. Kraut 1997 is a collection of important essays previously published elsewhere. The contents of Santas 2006 are especially accessible to students. Ferrari 2007 includes contributions from established scholars in several disciplines and is fruitful reading for student and scholar alike. McPherran 2010 is a helpful guide to current scholarly debates for advanced students. Höffe 1997 is a collection of scholarly papers in English and German.
  388.  
  389. Ferrari, G. R. F., ed. 2007. The Cambridge companion to Plato’s Republic. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  390. DOI: 10.1017/CCOL0521839637Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  391. A series of essays designed for first-time readers and scholars alike. Noted scholars from several disciplines contribute to the volume. The first three chapters deal with The Republic as a whole; subsequent chapters track themes as they appear in the course of the text. Provides a broad bibliography of scholarly work on the dialogue.
  392. Find this resource:
  393. Höffe, Otfried, ed. 1997. Platon: Politeia. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.
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  395. A collection of scholarly papers from a two-day conference in Tübingen. Papers, in English and German, go through The Republic book by book to address key themes and questions.
  396. Find this resource:
  397. Kraut, Richard, ed. 1997. Plato’s Republic: Critical essays. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
  398. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  399. A collection of important essays examining questions of continuing scholarly debate. All essays appeared in other publications prior to this volume.
  400. Find this resource:
  401. McPherran, Mark L., ed. 2010. Plato’s Republic: A critical guide. Cambridge Critical Guides. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  402. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511763090Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  403. One of a series of volumes that examine seminal works in the Western philosophical tradition. Designed for veteran readers of the text. Essays examine current scholarly debates on the interpretation of The Republic through reflective analysis.
  404. Find this resource:
  405. Santas, Gerasimos, ed. 2006. The Blackwell guide to Plato’s Republic. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
  406. DOI: 10.1002/9780470776414Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  407. Presents new essays by a wide variety of scholars on the main themes of Plato’s Republic. Essays provide insight into the subtleties of Platonic thought, and some engage current secondary literature. Good for beginning readers of The Republic.
  408. Find this resource:
  409. The Analogy of City and Soul
  410.  
  411. A key organizing feature of the political project of The Republic is an analogy drawn between the city and soul. Williams 1999 is a classic essay that argues that Plato’s use of this analogy is problematic. Lear 1992 is another important essay that argues for a causal relationship between city and soul. Ferrari 2003 attempts to preserve the coherence of Plato’s analogy against the earlier criticisms by Williams and Lear.
  412.  
  413. Ferrari, G. R. F. 2003. City and soul in Plato’s Republic. Sankt Augustin, Germany: Akademia Verlag.
  414. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  415. Ferrari attempts to defend the coherence of Plato’s analogy between city and soul against the criticisms by Williams and Lear.
  416. Find this resource:
  417. Lear, Jonathan. 1992. Inside and outside The Republic. Phronesis 37.2: 184–215.
  418. DOI: 10.1163/156852892321052605Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  419. Claims to uncover a causal relationship between the individual and city. The city shapes the souls of individuals who in turn shape the city of which they are a part. Reprinted in Kraut 1997 (cited under the Republic: Collections of Essays).
  420. Find this resource:
  421. Williams, Bernard. 1999. The analogy of city and soul in Plato’s Republic. In Plato 2: Ethics, politics, religion, and the soul. Edited by Gail Fine, 255–264. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  422. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  423. Argues that Plato’s analogy between city and soul conceals a serious logical flaw. Originally published in Exegesis and Argument: Studies in Greek Philosophy Presented to Gregory Vlastos, edited by Edward N. Lee, Alexander P. D. Mourelatos, and Richard M. Rorty (Assen, The Netherlands: B. V. van Gorcum, 1973), pp. 196–206. Also reprinted in Kraut 1997 (cited under the Republic: Collections of Essays).
  424. Find this resource:
  425. Totalitarianism and Utopianism
  426.  
  427. One area of The Republic that has attracted much attention is the character and purpose of the ideal regime that Socrates pictures in speech in the dialogue’s central books. Popper 1971 notoriously argues that this city represented a dangerous utopian totalitarian society. Taylor 1999 agrees with Popper that Plato is a totalitarian, but argues against Popper that he is not an extreme totalitarian. Strauss 1964 argues that The Republic is an antitotalitarian work: the proposals for this ideal city should be taken ironically. Bloom 1968 expands on the approach taken by Strauss. Burnyeat 1999 argues, against the assumptions of Bloom and Strauss, that Plato suggests that it is possible for Socrates’s ideal city to be realized. Rosen 2005 argues that The Republic depicts the tyranny of the rule of wisdom.
  428.  
  429. Bloom, Allan David. 1968. Interpretive essay. In The Republic of Plato. Edited and translated by Allan David Bloom, 307–436. New York: Basic Books.
  430. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  431. An expansion and elaboration of the general approach of Strauss 1964. Contends that Republic 5 is a comedy whose proposals are meant to be ridiculed. The egalitarian aspirations fully aired in Book 5 cannot be attained without distorting human nature. The Republic should be understood as “the greatest critique of political idealism ever written” (p. 410).
  432. Find this resource:
  433. Burnyeat, Myles F. 1999. Utopia and fantasy: The practicability of Plato’s ideally just city. In Plato 2: Ethics, politics, religion, and the soul. Edited by Gail Fine, 297–308. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  434. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  435. Argues that Plato’s Republic suggests that it is possible for Socrates’s ideal city to be implemented, even though the likelihood may be low and not all features will be implemented completely. Previously published in Psychoanalysis, Mind and Art: Perspectives on Richard Wollheim, edited by Jim Hopkins and Anthony Savile (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), pp. 175–187.
  436. Find this resource:
  437. Popper, Karl R. 1971. The open society and its enemies. Vol. 1, The spell of Plato. 5th ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
  438. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  439. Popper argues that Plato’s Republic is a blueprint for the implementation of an ideal totalitarian society.
  440. Find this resource:
  441. Rosen, Stanley. 2005. Plato’s Republic: A study. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.
  442. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  443. In this challenging interpretation of The Republic, Rosen argues that Plato’s main goal is to show the tyranny resulting in rule of philosophy or wisdom.
  444. Find this resource:
  445. Strauss, Leo. 1964. Plato’s Republic. In The city and man. By Leo Strauss, 50–138. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
  446. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  447. Plato’s Republic is an antitotalitarian work that reveals the essential limits of the city. Socrates’s proposals should be taken ironically—they are not meant to be implemented. Reprinted in English as recently as 2005.
  448. Find this resource:
  449. Taylor, C. C. W. 1999. Plato’s totalitarianism. In Plato 2: Ethics, politics, religion, and the soul. Edited by Gail Fine, 280–296. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  450. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  451. Although Taylor supports Popper’s claim that the regime of Plato’s Republic is totalitarian, he stresses that types of totalitarianism should be distinguished. Plato does not advocate extreme totalitarianism, but instead paternalistic totalitarianism. This article first appeared in Polis 5.2 (1986): 4–29. Also reprinted in Kraut 1997 (cited under the Republic: Collections of Essays).
  452. Find this resource:
  453. Justice
  454.  
  455. It is a dispute over the definition and nature of justice that launches the central line of argumentation in Plato’s Republic. Consequently, most global interpretations of Plato’s Republic deal at length with justice (see the entries cited under the Republic). Irwin 1995 provides extensive analysis of most facets of the virtue of justice in The Republic. Vlastos 1977 provides an overview of social justice in the dialogue. Sachs 1963 argues that Plato’s treatment of justice is fallacious. This paper has provoked many responses over the years. One (by Dahl) is included in Fine 1999, a collection that includes multiple essays dealing with justice. Brown 2000 deals with the potential conflict between justice and the coerced rule by philosophers.
  456.  
  457. Brown, Eric. 2000. Justice and compulsion for Plato’s philosopher-rulers. Ancient Philosophy 20.1: 1–17.
  458. DOI: 10.5840/ancientphil200020111Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  459. Plato’s suggestion that philosophers must be compelled to rule does not contradict his main thesis that it is always better to be just than unjust.
  460. Find this resource:
  461. Fine, Gail, ed. 1999. Plato 2: Ethics, politics, religion, and the soul. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  462. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  463. Multiple essays in this collection bear on Plato’s treatment of justice in The Republic. The most relevant are those by Terrence Irwin and Norman Dahl.
  464. Find this resource:
  465. Irwin, Terence. 1995. Plato’s ethics. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  466. DOI: 10.1093/0195086457.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  467. Chapters 12, 15, and 17 deal with Plato’s treatment of justice in The Republic.
  468. Find this resource:
  469. Sachs, David. 1963. A fallacy in Plato’s Republic. Philosophical Review 72.2: 141–158.
  470. DOI: 10.2307/2183101Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  471. This article prompted a long-standing debate over Plato’s treatment of justice in The Republic. Argues that Plato’s psychological account of justice is irrelevant for answering the initial challenge to show that conventional justice pays.
  472. Find this resource:
  473. Vlastos, Gregory. 1977. The theory of social justice in the polis of Plato’s Republic. In Interpretations of Plato. Edited by Helen F. North, 1–40. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
  474. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  475. This classic paper provides an overview of Plato’s treatment of social (rather than psychic) justice in The Republic.
  476. Find this resource:
  477. Women and the Family
  478.  
  479. Socrates’s proposal in Book 5 for equal education for women and the abolition of the family among guardians still provokes controversy among readers. Bluestone 1987 argues that Plato raises “all the major issues of sexual equality” (p. 167). Annas 1976, on the contrary, suggests that Book 5 is silent about matters of women’s rights and that its proposals are irrelevant to contemporary concerns of gender equality. Saxonhouse 1976 suggests that Socrates’s proposals distort the nature of women. Okin 1977 examines Plato’s treatment of women along with the family and property in The Republic and Laws.
  480.  
  481. Annas, Julia. 1976. Plato’s Republic and feminism. Philosophy 51.197: 307–321.
  482. DOI: 10.1017/S0031819100019355Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  483. Plato is no feminist. Book 5 of Plato’s Republic is irrelevant to contemporary debates over gender equality.
  484. Find this resource:
  485. Bluestone, Natalie Harris. 1987. Women and the ideal society: Plato’s Republic and modern myths of gender. Amherst: Univ. of Massachusetts Press.
  486. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  487. Detailed reading of Republic Book 5 in light of literature from the 19th century to present. Argues that Plato raises all the major contemporary concerns of sexual equality.
  488. Find this resource:
  489. Okin, Susan Moller. 1977. Philosopher queens and private wives: Plato on women and the family. Philosophy & Public Affairs 6.4: 345–369.
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  491. Compares Plato’s treatment of women in The Republic and Laws. Argues that Plato does not change his mind about the nature of women. The differences arise from the reintroduction of family and property in the later dialogue.
  492. Find this resource:
  493. Saxonhouse, Arlene W. 1976. The philosopher and the female in the political thought of Plato. Political Theory 4.2: 195–212.
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  495. Argues that Plato’s treatment of women undermines the realization of the ideal city ruled by philosopher-kings. Socrates’s proposals distort the nature both of women and philosophers.
  496. Find this resource:
  497. The Statesman
  498.  
  499. The Statesman (or Politicus) has attracted a much smaller body of literature than The Republic. Rowe 2000 provides an accessible overview of the work’s major themes. It is suitable for advanced undergraduate students. Lane 1998 is the most accessible scholarly work on the dialogue. Rosen 1995 is a study of the dialogue’s treatment of the art of politics that seeks to challenge traditional accounts of “Platonism.” Rowe 1995 is a collection of scholarly papers.
  500.  
  501. Lane, M. S. 1998. Method and politics in Plato’s Statesman. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  502. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511518492Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  503. Explores the relationship between Plato’s discussion of method and concern with the nature of political expertise in the Statesman. A relatively accessible work, though the main audience is specialists in Platonic political philosophy.
  504. Find this resource:
  505. Rosen, Stanley. 1995. Plato’s Statesman: The web of politics. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.
  506. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  507. Through a close reading of Plato’s Statesman, Rosen argues that politics is the art whereby human beings try to protect themselves from nature. Seeks to challenge conventional accounts of “Platonism.” For the specialist in ancient philosophy.
  508. Find this resource:
  509. Rowe, Christopher J., ed. 1995. Reading the Statesman: Proceedings of the III Symposium Platonicum. Sankt Augustin, Germany: Academia Verlag.
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  511. Collection of thirty-seven papers from the Third Symposium Platonicum, with bibliography. Includes several essays relevant to the dialogue’s political philosophy. For the specialist in Plato’s philosophy.
  512. Find this resource:
  513. Rowe, Christopher J. 2000. The Politicus and other dialogues. In The Cambridge history of Greek and Roman political thought. Edited by Christopher J. Rowe and Malcolm Schofield, 233–257. Cambridge History of Political Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  514. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  515. Overview of the dialogue’s themes, accessible to undergraduate students.
  516. Find this resource:
  517. The Laws
  518.  
  519. Plato’s Laws is his longest, and by most accounts his last, philosophical dialogue. Like the Statesman, it has long been overshadowed by the Republic. However, it has received increased scholarly attention since 1990. Bobonich 2010 includes essays from leading scholars in the Anglophone world on aspects of the dialogue’s political theory and moral psychology. Scolnicov and Brisson 2003 is a generous collection of essays reflecting recent international scholarly work on the Laws. Saunders and Brisson 2000 provides a bibliography of scholarship on Plato’s Laws up to the date of publication. Laks 2000 provides an accessible overview of the dialogue, which is of value for students and scholars alike. One of the basic questions confronting readers of the Laws is its relationship with Plato’s other political works, especially The Republic. Bobonich 2002 is a lengthy and challenging book that traces the development of Plato’s moral and political thought from The Republic to the Laws. Laks 1990 is an influential article that stresses greater unity than development in Plato’s thought when comparing The Republic and Laws. In addition to recent scholarship on Plato’s Laws, two older works remain valuable. Morrow 1960 is still a valuable account of the dialogue’s treatment of social institutions and legislation. Strauss 1975 is a useful commentary on the entire dialogue.
  520.  
  521. Bobonich, Christopher. 2002. Plato’s utopia recast: His later ethics and politics. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
  522. DOI: 10.1093/0199251436.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  523. This scholarly monograph seeks to cast the Laws as the result of the continual development (and improvement) of Plato’s ethical and political theory. In addition to treating the political and ethical theory of the Laws, it also deals with The Republic and other works belonging to “late Plato.”
  524. Find this resource:
  525. Bobonich, Christopher, ed. 2010. Plato’s Laws: A critical guide. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  526. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511781483Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  527. Eleven essays by leading scholars working in the Anglophone tradition on aspects of the work’s political philosophy and moral psychology. Essays tackle topics relating to virtue, moral psychology, religion, and political institutions.
  528. Find this resource:
  529. Laks, André. 1990. Legislation and demiurgy: On the relationship between Plato’s Republic and Laws. Classical Antiquity 9.2: 209–229.
  530. DOI: 10.2307/25010929Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  531. This influential article argues that Plato’s Laws is a continuation of, rather than a departure from, the philosophical project of The Republic. The second-best regime of the Laws is an approximate realization of the paradigm of The Republic under the constraints imposed by human psychology.
  532. Find this resource:
  533. Laks, André. 2000. The Laws. In The Cambridge history of Greek and Roman political thought. Edited by Christopher J. Rowe and Malcolm Schofield, 258–292. Cambridge History of Political Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  534. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521481366Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  535. An accessible overview of the political philosophy of Plato’s Laws. Argues that the regime in the Laws is the implementation, revision, and completion of the goals of The Republic.
  536. Find this resource:
  537. Morrow, Glenn R. 1960. Plato’s Cretan city: A historical interpretation of the Laws. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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  539. Despite the title and date of publication, Morrow’s classic study of the Laws still has much value for scholars interested in Plato’s political thought in the Laws. Examines the Laws in light of historical Athens, Crete, and Sparta. A thorough analysis of the dialogue’s legislation and social institutions.
  540. Find this resource:
  541. Saunders, Trevor J., and Luc Brisson. 2000. Bibliography on Plato’s Laws. 3d ed. Sankt Augustin, Germany: Academia Verlag.
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  543. Covers literature from 1922 to 1999 on Plato’s Laws. The bibliography is composed of the following three sections: texts, translations, and commentaries; books and articles; and discussion of particular passages. It also includes an addendum with additional bibliography on Plato’s Epinomis. An excellent resource for scholars working on Plato’s Laws.
  544. Find this resource:
  545. Scolnicov, Samuel, and Luc Brisson, eds. 2003. Plato’s Laws: From theory into practice; Proceedings of the VI Symposium Platonicum. Sankt Augustin, Germany: Academia Verlag.
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  547. Selected papers from the Sixth Symposium Platonicum. Forty essays in five languages that reflect recent international scholarly work on Plato’s Laws. Examines a wide variety of problems related to Plato’s Laws.
  548. Find this resource:
  549. Strauss, Leo. 1975. The argument and action of Plato’s Laws. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
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  551. A detailed commentary on Plato’s dialogue that pays unusually close attention to the language and literary details of the work. Identifies the argument of the Athenian Stranger with what Socrates would have said had he escaped from prison and engaged in a political conversation in exile.
  552. Find this resource:
  553. Aristotle
  554.  
  555. Aristotle’s political philosophy in recent years has received much attention from specialists in ancient philosophy, historians of political thought, and political philosophers eager to bring his thought into conversation with contemporary political debates. Although this bibliography focuses on scholarship of an expository nature, some of these expositions of Aristotle’s thought also suggest grounds for the Greek philosopher’s continued relevance. Although Aristotle’s central work of political philosophy is his Politics, the Nicomachean Ethics and Constitution of Athens are also relevant sources for his political ideas. Kraut 2002 is a large-scale study of Aristotle’s political thought that covers the central political and social ideas of the Ethics in addition to the Politics. Miller 1995 provides a provocative reading of the Politics that seeks to position Aristotle as an important predecessor of modern understandings of justice. Salkever 1990 contains an exposition of Aristotle’s political science and relates it to problems in contemporary liberalism. Nichols 1992 provides a close, book-by-book reading of the Politics that challenges established scholarly consensus of several important themes. Yack 1993 provides an important reading of the Politics that focuses on the ineradicable conflict that characterizes political communities and explains how the members of such communities can still live good lives. Mulgan 1987 (originally published in 1977) is a classic introduction to Aristotle’s political philosophy that is still valuable for undergraduates. Roberts 2009 provides a more recent introduction to Aristotle’s political theory for students (especially philosophy students) approaching Aristotle for the first time.
  556.  
  557. Kraut, Richard. 2002. Aristotle: Political philosophy. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  559. An examination of the Aristotle’s political philosophy that stresses its relevance for contemporary debates about social and political matters. The first part of the work is devoted to select topics in the Nicomachean Ethics, while the second examines topics in each of the books of the Politics.
  560. Find this resource:
  561. Miller, Fred D., Jr. 1995. Nature, justice, and rights in Aristotle’s Politics. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  563. Challenging global interpretation of Aristotle’s Politics that focuses on the ideal constitution that is just according to nature and that serves as a standard for deviant constitutions. Argues that Aristotle is concerned with individual rights and is an important precursor to modern understandings of justice.
  564. Find this resource:
  565. Mulgan, Richard G. 1987. Aristotle’s political theory: An introduction for students of political theory. Oxford: Clarendon.
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  567. Originally published in 1977, the classic introductory work on Aristotle’s Politics. Deals with a number of topics, including Aristotle’s naturalism, political science, the polis and household, constitutions, the ideal state, and political dissent. Addressed to students of political theory but useful as well for other readers of Aristotle’s Politics and historians of political thought.
  568. Find this resource:
  569. Nichols, Mary P. 1992. Citizens and statesmen: A study of Aristotle’s Politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
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  571. This book walks the reader through the text of Aristotle’s Politics book by book. Challenges orthodox scholarly opinion at several places, including Aristotle’s treatments of slavery and the best regime.
  572. Find this resource:
  573. Roberts, Jean. 2009. Routledge philosophy guidebook to Aristotle and the Politics. London and New York: Routledge.
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  575. Guide to Aristotle’s Politics intended to help new readers interested in the work’s political philosophy get their bearings by providing guidance on difficult topics. There are no footnotes, but the reader is supplied with suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter.
  576. Find this resource:
  577. Salkever, Stephen G. 1990. Finding the mean: Theory and practice in Aristotelian political philosophy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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  579. Explores Aristotle’s political theory and its relevance for contemporary political debates. The first part of the book examines the relationship between Aristotle’s articulation of a universal human good and appropriate responses to diverse political problems in different contexts. The second half explores the relevance of Aristotle’s political science to liberal political theory.
  580. Find this resource:
  581. Yack, Bernard. 1993. The problems of a political animal: Community, justice, and conflict in Aristotelian political thought. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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  583. Argues that the tensions of political communities are irresolvable, on the basis of an Aristotelian theory of moral/political life that asserts conflict is the expression, not the breakdown, of political ties. The dialectic of conflict and community is employed to analyze key themes in Aristotle’s political and ethical thought. His argument positions itself between individualist and communitarian interpretations.
  584. Find this resource:
  585. Commentaries
  586.  
  587. Newman 1887–1902 is the classic English-language, full-scale commentary on the Politics. Despite its age, it still has some value to scholars. Simpson 1998 is a single-volume English commentary. Schütrumpf 1991–2005 provides the first extensive commentary on the Politics since the 19th century. Pellegrin 1993 provides commentary in French.
  588.  
  589. Newman, William Lambert. 1887–1902. The Politics of Aristotle. 4 vols. Oxford: Clarendon.
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  591. Introduction to Aristotle’s political ideas, reconstructed Greek text, and philosophical commentary. The classic English-language, full-scale commentary that still retains some value for scholars of Aristotle’s Politics.
  592. Find this resource:
  593. Pellegrin, Pierre. 1993. Aristote: Les Politiques. Paris: Flammarion.
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  595. Translation, introduction, and commentary on Aristotle’s Politics—all in French.
  596. Find this resource:
  597. Schütrumpf, Eckart. 1991–2005. Aristoteles Politik. 4 vols. Berlin and Darmstadt: Akademie Verlag.
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  599. The first full-scale commentary on Aristotle’s Politics since the 19th century. Divides the work into four disparate parts, which Schütrumpf dates to different points in Aristotle’s career. Volumes include (German) translations, commentaries, introductions and overviews, and extensive bibliographies.
  600. Find this resource:
  601. Simpson, Peter L. Phillips. 1998. A philosophical commentary on the Politics of Aristotle. Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press.
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  603. A one-volume scholarly commentary on the philosophical arguments of the Politics. A good scholarly reference source. Argues that Aristotle’s discussion of the best constitution should logically go after Book 3 rather than at the end of the work.
  604. Find this resource:
  605. Collections of Essays
  606.  
  607. A number of volumes have collected important essays on Aristotle’s political thought for ease of access. Höffe 2001 is a collection of essays in German and English on Aristotle’s Politics. Keyt and Miller 1991 is a collection of essays written by leading scholars, approaching Aristotle largely from within the Anglophone analytic tradition. Many essays in this collection are still valuable. Lord and O’Connor 1991 brings together essays from scholars working from a range of disciplinary and methodological perspectives. The essays focus on broader themes related more generally to Aristotle’s social thought. Kraut and Skultety 2005 brings together ten recent influential essays. It is a good source for readers looking for an overview of recent scholarly debate. Patzig 1990 consists of conference proceedings along with published responses to most of the essays; it includes some classic essays. Aubenque 1993 offers a sampling of French scholarship on the Politics. Finally, Barnes, et al. 1977 provides an important sampling of older scholarship, including scholars working in the analytical tradition as well as ancient history.
  608.  
  609. Aubenque, Pierre, ed. 1993. Aristote, Politique: Études sur la Politique d’Aristote. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
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  611. A collection of essays arising from a series of seminars at the Sorbonne, designed to stimulate the study of Aristotle’s Politics in France. Contributors are mainly French; all papers are published in French. Essays treat Aristotle’s naturalism, teleology, attitude toward democracy, politics and rhetoric, and the Politics’ reception, among other topics.
  612. Find this resource:
  613. Barnes, Jonathan, Malcolm Schofield, and Richard Sorabji, eds. 1977. Articles on Aristotle. Vol. 2, Ethics and politics. London: Duckworth.
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  615. A collection of previously published articles on Aristotle, drawn from scholarly publications and book chapters. The editors hope to highlight the connection between ethics and politics in Aristotle’s thought. Half the essays focus on Aristotle’s ethical treatises, the other half on politics and history.
  616. Find this resource:
  617. Höffe, Otfried, ed. 2001. Aristoteles Politik. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.
  618. DOI: 10.1524/9783050050331Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  619. Essays in German and English, by leading scholars on Aristotle’s Politics. The editor, Otfried Höffe, provides three chapters of overview on the Politics as a whole and current trends in interpretation. Nine chapters by other authors deal with the major themes of the Politics, in the order they appear in the text.
  620. Find this resource:
  621. Keyt, David, and Fred D. Miller Jr., eds. 1991. A companion to Aristotle’s Politics. Oxford: Blackwell.
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  623. Fifteen essays (four commissioned for this volume) by leading specialists in Aristotle’s political thought, dealing with the major themes of the Politics. Still a valuable collection of essays.
  624. Find this resource:
  625. Kraut, Richard, and Steven Skultety, eds. 2005. Aristotle’s Politics: Critical essays. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
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  627. A collection of ten influential essays published over the preceding two decades and reprinted in a single volume. Articles are representative of contemporary debate over interpretation of Aristotle’s political thought. Topics include the modern relevance of Aristotle’s Politics, slavery, property, and democracy.
  628. Find this resource:
  629. Lord, Carnes, and David K. O’Connor, eds. 1991. Essays on the foundations of Aristotelian political science. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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  631. Nine essays on Aristotle’s political thought, by scholars working in a range of disciplines and approaching Aristotle from different methodological positions. The essays are arranged thematically and focus on Aristotle’s “social science” rather than on his political science construed more strictly.
  632. Find this resource:
  633. Patzig, Günther, ed. 1990. Aristoteles’ Politik: Akten des XI. Symposium Aristotelicum, Friedrichshafen/Bodensee, 25.8.–3.9.1987. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
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  635. Conference proceedings in German and English on Aristotle’s Politics; many papers are followed by replies. Most essays examine the internal consistency of Aristotle’s thought. One consistent theme is Aristotle’s validity for present-day political debate. Another is to what extent Aristotle’s work is philosophical versus biographical or ideological.
  636. Find this resource:
  637. Citizenship and Justice
  638.  
  639. Collins 2006 is a book-length study of Aristotle’s conception of citizenship, focusing on the relationship between citizenship and conceptions of the good. Johnson 1984 focuses on Aristotle’s definition of citizenship and the light that it sheds on various political questions in the Politics. Morrison 1999 considers a long-standing problem related to Aristotle’s definition of citizenship. Miller 1995 includes important discussion both of citizenship and justice, maintaining that justice and citizenship involve individual rights. Schofield 1996 critiques Miller 1995. Citizenship on Aristotle’s account is more a matter of sharing in the constitution than possessing rights. Roberts 2000 provides an accessible overview of Aristotle’s treatment of justice. Keyt 1991 is a classic account of distributive justice in the Politics and Ethics.
  640.  
  641. Collins, Susan D. 2006. Aristotle and the rediscovery of citizenship. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  642. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511498633Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  643. Explores Aristotle’s conception of citizenship, through a sustained commentary on sections of Aristotle’s Politics and Nicomachean Ethics. Suggests that Aristotle’s connection of the good with political life adds something valuable to contemporary debates over citizenship, which modern liberalism cannot supply.
  644. Find this resource:
  645. Johnson, Curtis. 1984. Who is Aristotle’s citizen? Phronesis 29.1: 73–90.
  646. DOI: 10.1163/156852884X00193Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  647. Argues that Aristotle’s definition of citizenship helps resolve both theoretical disputes about the nature of citizenship and practical disputes about who should be a citizen. Moreover, Aristotle’s definition of a citizen provides a key to understanding his views of the state.
  648. Find this resource:
  649. Keyt, David. 1991. Aristotle’s theory of distributive justice. In A companion to Aristotle’s Politics. Edited by David Keyt and Fred D. Miller Jr., 238–278. Oxford: Blackwell.
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  651. Important treatment of Aristotle’s theory of distributive justice in the Politics and Ethics.
  652. Find this resource:
  653. Miller, Fred D., Jr. 1995. Nature, justice, and rights in Aristotle’s Politics. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  655. A challenging and provocative book dealing with Aristotle’s views of justice and citizenship. Argues that Aristotle understands justice in terms of individual rights and understands citizenship in terms of the possession of political rights.
  656. Find this resource:
  657. Morrison, Donald. 1999. Aristotle’s definition of citizenship: A problem and some solutions. History of Philosophy Quarterly 16.2: 143–165.
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  659. This article develops a long-standing problem in Aristotle’s political thought. Aristotle’s definition of citizenship as participation in rule seems to create a tension with his classification of good and bad regimes. Several solutions are offered and analyzed.
  660. Find this resource:
  661. Roberts, Jean. 2000. Justice and the polis. In The Cambridge history of Greek and Roman political thought. Edited by Christopher J. Rowe and Malcolm Schofield, 344–365. Cambridge History of Political Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  662. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521481366Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  663. Accessible survey of Aristotle’s treatment of justice, including natural justice, the relationship between just individuals and just citizens, and justice and distributive justice. Appropriate for undergraduates.
  664. Find this resource:
  665. Schofield, Malcolm. 1996. Sharing in the constitution. Review of Metaphysics 49.4: 831–858.
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  667. A critique of Miller 1995. Argues that citizenship for Aristotle consists not so much in the possession of rights as in sharing in the constitution. Reprinted in Schofield, Saving the City: Philosopher-Kings and Other Classical Paradigms (London: Routledge, 1999), pp. 124–139.
  668. Find this resource:
  669. Constitutional Theory
  670.  
  671. Many of the book-length studies listed under Aristotle contain treatments of Aristotle’s constitutional theory (see especially Kraut 2002, Miller 1995, and Mulgan 1987). Miller 2009 provides an overview of Aristotle’s treatment of ideal constitutions in the Politics. Mayhew 1997 is a book-length study of Aristotle’s criticisms of Socrates’s ideal regime in Plato’s Republic. Salkever 2007 challenges the common view that the ideal regime in Politics 7–8 is one that Aristotle would hope for. Strauss 1991 examines the historical accuracy of Aristotle’s criticisms of Athenian democracy. Mulgan 1991 discusses democracy and oligarchy and describes Aristotle’s account of the politeia as a mixture of democratic and oligarchic principles.
  672.  
  673. Mayhew, Robert. 1997. Aristotle’s criticism of Plato’s Republic. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
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  675. The only book-length treatment of Aristotle’s criticisms of Plato’s Republic in Politics 2. This is a philosophical commentary on the text, aimed at specialists.
  676. Find this resource:
  677. Miller, Fred D., Jr. 2009. Aristotle on the ideal constitution. In A companion to Aristotle. Edited by Georgios Anagnostopoulos, 540–554. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
  678. DOI: 10.1002/9781444305661Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  679. Overview of Aristotle’s treatment of ideal constitutions in the Politics. Discusses Aristotle’s criticisms of Plato’s Republic and Laws, Aristotle’s own ideal regime, and the Greek philosopher’s contributions to ideal theory. Includes a bibliography of works for further reading. Appropriate for undergraduate students.
  680. Find this resource:
  681. Mulgan, Richard G. 1991. Aristotle’s analysis of oligarchy and democracy. In A companion to Aristotle’s Politics. Edited by David Keyt and Fred D. Miller Jr., 307–322. Oxford: Blackwell.
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  683. This article discusses Aristotle’s treatment of oligarchy and democracy. Special attention is given to the mixed constitution as a combination of democratic and oligarchic principles.
  684. Find this resource:
  685. Salkever, Stephen. 2007. Whose prayer? The best regime of Book 7 and the lessons of Aristotle’s Politics. Political Theory 35.1: 29–46.
  686. DOI: 10.1177/0090591706295613Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  687. Argues that the best regime described at the end of the Politics is not Aristotle’s own ideal, but the ideal of a “man” fully committed to the political life. Insofar as this is true, the ideal city highlights the limitations of politics that citizens should keep in view.
  688. Find this resource:
  689. Strauss, Barry S. 1991. On Aristotle’s critique of Athenian democracy. In Essays on the foundations of Aristotelian political science. Edited by Carnes Lord and David K. O’Connor, 212–233. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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  691. Argues that Aristotle’s analysis of Athenian democracy is at times exaggerated and inaccurate in its criticisms. Suggests that some of these exaggerations are related to the rhetorical purposes of the work.
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  693. Political Naturalism
  694.  
  695. Aristotle famously maintained that the polis exists by nature and that man is by nature a political animal. Keyt 1991 is a controversial article that accuses Aristotle’s account of inconsistency. Nederman 1994 is one attempt to defend Aristotle’s consistency. Miller 2000 provides an accessible overview of Aristotle’s naturalism while also suggesting responses to Keyt’s criticisms.
  696.  
  697. Keyt, David. 1991. Three basic theorems in Aristotle’s Politics. In A companion to Aristotle’s Politics. Edited by David Keyt and Fred D. Miller Jr., 118–141. Oxford: Blackwell.
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  699. This controversial essay argues that Aristotle’s propositions that man is naturally a political animal and that the polis exists by nature lead to a fundamental contradiction in his theory, because these concepts do not appear to be natural according to the criterion distinguishing “nature” from “artifice” he established elsewhere.
  700. Find this resource:
  701. Miller, Fred D., Jr. 2000. Naturalism. In The Cambridge history of Greek and Roman political thought. Edited by Christopher J. Rowe and Malcolm Schofield, 321–343. Cambridge History of Political Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  702. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521481366Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  703. This accessible overview of Aristotle’s political naturalism attempts to meet Keyt’s criticisms of Aristotle’s theory. Appropriate for undergraduates.
  704. Find this resource:
  705. Nederman, Cary J. 1994. The puzzle of the political animal: Nature and artifice in Aristotle’s political theory. Review of Politics 56.2: 283–304.
  706. DOI: 10.1017/S0034670500018441Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  707. Attempts to counter the charges of Keyt 1991 regarding the alleged inconsistency of Aristotle’s political naturalism. Argues that human beings have a fundamental capacity for choice and that the lawgiver’s fundamental activity is to provide education to inform human choices. Thus, politics is a natural activity.
  708. Find this resource:
  709. Slaves, Women, and the Household
  710.  
  711. Book 1 of Aristotle’s Politics includes an analysis of political rule that, in turn, deals with slaves, women, and the household. Brunt 1993 examines Aristotle’s treatment of slavery in several texts and concludes that he is inconsistent. Lockwood 2007 argues for Aristotle’s consistency in his accounts of slavery. Schofield 1999 has become something of a classic article on Aristotle’s theory of natural slavery, which holds that the Politics’ account is an exercise in philosophy rather than ideology. Saxonhouse 1982 deals with Aristotle’s discussion of women and the household. It argues that Aristotle is concerned to defend the private sphere rather than to denigrate the political capacities of women. Mulgan 1994 argues that Aristotle is a sexist.
  712.  
  713. Brunt, P. A. 1993. Aristotle and slavery. In Studies in Greek history and thought. By P. A. Brunt, 434–488. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  715. Studies Aristotle’s theory of slavery as articulated in several texts. Argues that Aristotle is not consistent in his approach to the topic.
  716. Find this resource:
  717. Lockwood, Thornton. 2007. Is natural slavery beneficial? Journal of the History of Philosophy 45.2: 207–221.
  718. DOI: 10.1353/hph.2007.0040Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  719. Attempts to show that Aristotle’s treatments of natural slavery in the Politics and Ethics are consistent. Footnotes provide a good guide to the bibliography on Aristotle and natural slavery.
  720. Find this resource:
  721. Mulgan, Richard G. 1994. Aristotle and the political role of women. History of Political Thought 15.2: 179–202.
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  723. Surveys scholarly treatments of Aristotle’s views toward women. Argues that it is impossible to save Aristotle from the charge of “sexism.”
  724. Find this resource:
  725. Saxonhouse, Arlene W. 1982. Family, polity & unity: Aristotle on Socrates’ community of wives. Polity 15.2: 202–219.
  726. DOI: 10.2307/3234678Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  727. Analysis of Aristotle’s defense of the household, through an examination of his critique of Socrates’s community of wives and children. Argues that the public must build upon, rather than destroy, the private.
  728. Find this resource:
  729. Schofield, Malcolm. 1999. Ideology and philosophy in Aristotle’s theory of slavery. In Saving the city: Philosopher-kings and other classical paradigms. By Malcolm Schofield, 101–123. London and New York: Routledge.
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  731. This important article focuses on Aristotle’s theory of natural slavery in the Politics. Argues that Aristotle’s treatment of natural slavery is philosophical rather than ideological. First published in Patzig 1990; a version is also included in Kraut and Skultety 2005 (both cited under Aristotle: Collections of Essays).
  732. Find this resource:
  733. Hellenistic Political Philosophy
  734.  
  735. Hellenistic political philosophy refers to Greek political theory under the great Hellenistic kingdoms. Its chronological boundaries are often assumed to be marked by the death of Aristotle in 322 BCE and Rome’s conquest of the last great Hellenistic monarchy in 30 BCE. Although philosophers living under the Roman Republic fall within this time frame, Cicero and Lucretius are treated separately below under Roman Political Philosophy. Aalders 1975 is a book-length survey of Hellenistic political philosophy. Schofield 1999 provides an excellent article-length survey. Hahm 2000 focuses on Hellenistic theories of kingship and the mixed constitution. Laks and Schofield 1995 is a valuable collection of papers on Hellenistic political philosophy.
  736.  
  737. Aalders, G. J. F. 1975. Political thought in Hellenistic times. Amsterdam: Hakkert.
  738. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  739. The only book-length comprehensive survey of Hellenistic political philosophy. Focuses mainly on primary sources.
  740. Find this resource:
  741. Hahm, David E. 2000. Kings and constitutions: Hellenistic theories. In The Cambridge history of Greek and Roman political thought. Edited by Christopher J. Rowe and Malcolm Schofield, 457–476. Cambridge History of Political Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  742. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521481366Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  743. Essay focuses mainly on theories of kingship and Polybius’s account of the mixed constitution. Provides a more extensive bibliography than Aalders 1975.
  744. Find this resource:
  745. Laks, André, and Malcolm Schofield, eds. 1995. Justice and generosity: Studies in Hellenistic social and political thought; Proceedings of the Sixth Symposium Hellenisticum. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  746. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511518485Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  747. An important collection of papers on a variety of topics in Hellenistic political thought.
  748. Find this resource:
  749. Schofield, Malcolm. 1999. Social and political thought. In The Cambridge history of Hellenistic philosophy. Edited by Keimpe Algra, Jonathan Barnes, Jaap Mansfeld, and Malcolm Schofield, 739–770. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  750. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521250283Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  751. An excellent and extremely accessible article-length survey of Hellenistic political thought.
  752. Find this resource:
  753. Texts and Translations
  754.  
  755. Evidence for many aspects of Hellenistic political philosophy is scattered throughout a variety of sources. Long and Sedley 1987 includes relevant texts and translations. Arnim 1903–1924 is a collection of evidence related to the early Stoics.
  756.  
  757. Arnim, Hans Friedrich August von, ed. 1903–1924. Stoicorum veterum fragmenta. 4 vols. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner.
  758. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  759. Includes fragments attributed to the Stoics Zeno of Citium, Chrysippus, and their immediate followers.
  760. Find this resource:
  761. Long, Anthony A., and D. N. Sedley. 1987. The Hellenistic philosophers. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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  763. The standard collection of the evidence for the Hellenistic philosophers. Includes important texts relating to the political thought of the Epicureans and Stoics. Volume 1 includes translations of the texts, along with a philosophical and historical commentary. Volume 2 includes the Greek and Latin texts. An important resource for students and scholars alike.
  764. Find this resource:
  765. Hellenistic Stoics
  766.  
  767. Scholars must piece together from a variety of sources the political philosophy of the earliest and most important of the Hellenistic Stoa, Zeno and Chrysippus. Schofield 1991 provides a good model of the necessary doxographical detective work. Erskine 1990 relates early Stoic political philosophy to its historical and political context. Vander Waerdt 1994 relates Zeno’s Republic to Plato’s Republic. Vogt 2008 shows how early Stoic political philosophy relates to such central aspects of Stoic philosophy as nature, the cosmos, wisdom, and reason. Long 2007 argues for the continuing relevance of Stoic political philosophy, whereas Mitsis 2011 argues for its irrelevance.
  768.  
  769. Erskine, Andrew. 1990. The Hellenistic Stoa: Political thought and action. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.
  770. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  771. This book treats Stoic thought in its historical and political context.
  772. Find this resource:
  773. Long, Anthony A. 2007. Stoic communitarianism and normative citizenship. In Freedom, reason, and the polis: Essays in ancient Greek political philosophy. Edited by David Keyt and Fred D. Miller Jr., 241–261. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  774. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  775. A leading scholar of Stoicism summarizes its contributions to political thought and argues for its contemporary relevance.
  776. Find this resource:
  777. Mitsis, Phillip. 2011. Hellenistic political theory. In The Oxford handbook of the history of political philosophy. Edited by George Klosko, 120–141. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  778. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199238804.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  779. Despite the title, Mitsis focuses mainly on Stoicism. In opposition to the present opinio communis, he argues that the Stoics did not have a genuinely political philosophy.
  780. Find this resource:
  781. Schofield, Malcolm. 1991. The Stoic idea of the city. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  782. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  783. Reprinted in 1999 (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press). Reconstructs the central unifying principles of Zeno’s Republic through a careful treatment of the doxographical evidence and shows how the cosmic city mediates the transition from the republicanism of Plato to later natural-law theory.
  784. Find this resource:
  785. Vander Waerdt, Paul A. 1994. Zeno’s Republic and the origins of natural law. In The Socratic movement. Edited by Paul A. Vander Waerdt, 272–308. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.
  786. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  787. Argues that in his Republic Zeno developed the doctrine of natural law in response to Plato’s treatment of natural justice in his Republic. Also an important though controversial contribution to the debate over the Stoic origins of natural law, with references to opposing viewpoints and earlier literature.
  788. Find this resource:
  789. Vogt, Katja Maria. 2008. Law, reason, and the cosmic city: Political philosophy in the early Stoa. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  790. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195320091.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  791. A comprehensive treatment of early Stoic political philosophy that seeks to relocate Stoic political thought to the center of Stoic philosophy. Contributes to scholarly debates over the nature of early Stoic cosmopolitanism and natural-law theory.
  792. Find this resource:
  793. Epicureans
  794.  
  795. Traditionally, Epicureans are thought to have considered participation in politics as something to be avoided. The best account of the Epicurean stance toward politics along these lines is Fowler 1997. Roskam 2007 emphasizes that the Epicurean prohibition on political participation is conditional. Brown 2009 argues that the Epicureans were not “apolitical” but took a countercultural approach to politics. Schofield 2000 argues that Epicurean social and political thought was based on a fundamental concern with security. Alberti 1995 explores the Epicurean understanding of the relationship between law and justice. Benferhat 2005 discusses the relationship between Epicureanism and monarchy.
  796.  
  797. Alberti, Antonina. 1995. The Epicurean theory of law and justice. In Justice and generosity: Studies in Hellenistic social and political thought; Proceedings of the Sixth Symposium Hellenisticum. Edited by André Laks and Malcolm Schofield, 161–190. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  798. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511518485Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  799. Suggests that Epicureans departed from Plato and Aristotle by separating law and justice. Contains a nuanced account of the Epicurean view of justice.
  800. Find this resource:
  801. Benferhat, Yasmina. 2005. Ciues Epicurei: Les Épicuriens et l’idée de monarchie à Rome et en Italie de Sylla à Octave. Brussels: Éditions Latomus.
  802. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  803. Examines the evidence for the purported Epicurean preference for monarchy, the reception of Epicureanism at Rome, and its relationship to republican and Caesarian partisans.
  804. Find this resource:
  805. Brown, Eric. 2009. Politics and society. In The Cambridge companion to Epicureanism. Edited by James Warren, 179–196. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  806. DOI: 10.1017/CCOL9780521873475Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  807. Argues against the commonplace view that Epicureans reject political participation. Focusing primarily on evidence relating to Epicurus, Brown treats Epicurean views of friendship and justice.
  808. Find this resource:
  809. Fowler, D. P. 1997. Lucretius and politics. In Philosophia togata I: Essays on philosophy and Roman society. New ed. Edited by Miriam T. Griffin and Jonathan Barnes, 120–150. Oxford: Clarendon.
  810. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  811. Although Lucretius is the focus of this important paper, it also contains much of value about Epicurean thought based on other sources. Argues that Epicureans rejected political involvement in any meaningful sense of the term. Originally published in 1989.
  812. Find this resource:
  813. Roskam, Geert. 2007. “Live Unnoticed”—ΛάΘε ϐιώσας: On the vicissitudes of an Epicurean doctrine. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
  814. DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004161719.i-236Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  815. Emphasizes the conditional nature of the Epicurean prohibition on politics. Participation in public life can even be required if failure to do so will disrupt the Epicurean’s ataraxia. This condition accounts for the historical evidence of occasional Epicurean political involvement.
  816. Find this resource:
  817. Schofield, Malcolm. 2000. Epicurean and Stoic political thought. In The Cambridge history of Greek and Roman political thought. Edited by Christopher J. Rowe and Malcolm Schofield, 435–456. Cambridge History of Political Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  818. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521481366Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  819. Includes a brief and accessible overview of Epicureanism, which places at the center of Epicurus’s thought a concern with social security. Good introduction to the topic for students.
  820. Find this resource:
  821. Cynics
  822.  
  823. Cynicism, a term given to the way of life of the 4th-century BCE philosopher Diogenes and his followers, denotes a movement in Antiquity that attacks convention in all its forms. Although Cynicism influenced other philosophies in Antiquity and beyond, scholars continue to debate its relationship to politics and whether it is even a philosophy. Moles 1995 is a useful discussion of these issues. Desmond 2008 provides a book-length overview of Cynicism and its reception that is suitable for students. Branham and Goulet-Cazé 1996 is an important collection of papers by leading scholars. Geuss 2003 uses Diogenes the Cynic to explore the relationship between what is public and what is private.
  824.  
  825. Branham, Robert Bracht, and Marie-Odile Goulet-Cazé, eds. 1996. The Cynics: The Cynic movement in Antiquity and its legacy. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  826. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  827. Important collection of articles on Cynicism and its reception.
  828. Find this resource:
  829. Desmond, William D. 2008. Cynics. Ancient Philosophies 3. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  830. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  831. An entry-level work suitable for students. Covers the ideas and practices associated with the Cynics. Chapter 5 deals with politics.
  832. Find this resource:
  833. Geuss, Raymond. 2003. Public goods, private goods. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
  834. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  835. The first chapter discusses Diogenes the Cynic’s disregard for conventions regarding the boundaries between public and private.
  836. Find this resource:
  837. Moles, John L. 1995. The Cynics and politics. In Justice and generosity: Studies in Hellenistic social and political thought; Proceedings of the Sixth Symposium Hellenisticum. Edited by André Laks and Malcolm Schofield, 129–158. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  838. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511518485Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  839. Survey of Cynicism and its relationship to politics, by a leading expert in the area. Covers Cynicism from Diogenes to the Roman period. Argues that Cynic politics is identical with the Cynic way of life.
  840. Find this resource:
  841. Polybius
  842.  
  843. Scholarship on Polybius’s political philosophy has focused on his analyses of constitutional change and the mixed constitution in Book 6 of his Histories. Trompf 1979 provides a thorough analysis of Polybius’s cycle of constitutions. Hahm 1995 emphasizes the psychology underlying Polybius’s account of this cycle. Fritz 1954 is the most comprehensive analysis of Polybius’s theory of the mixed constitution. Nippel 1980 presents Polybius’s theory as part of a wider study of the mixed constitution. Hahm 2009 is an accessible introduction to the idea of the mixed constitution in the ancient world (including Polybius). Walbank 1957–1979 is still the authoritative commentary on Polybius’s Histories.
  844.  
  845. Fritz, Kurt von. 1954. The theory of the mixed constitution in Antiquity: A critical analysis of Polybius’ political ideas. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.
  846. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  847. The most thorough study of Polybius’s theory of the mixed constitution.
  848. Find this resource:
  849. Hahm, David E. 1995. Polybius’ applied political theory. In Justice and generosity: Studies in Hellenistic social and political thought; Proceedings of the Sixth Symposium Hellenisticum. Edited by André Laks and Malcolm Schofield, 7–47. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  850. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511518485Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  851. Breaks from common earlier interpretations, by emphasizing the natural laws of social psychology that lie behind Polybius’s theory of constitutional change.
  852. Find this resource:
  853. Hahm, David E. 2009. The mixed constitution in Greek thought. In A companion to Greek and Roman political thought. Edited by Ryan K. Balot, 178–198. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
  854. DOI: 10.1002/9781444310344Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  855. Analyzes Polybius’s theory of the mixed constitution, along with those of Plato and Aristotle. Great introduction for undergraduate and graduate students.
  856. Find this resource:
  857. Nippel, Wilfried. 1980. Mischverfassungstheorie und Verfassungsrealität in Antike und früher Neuzeit. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.
  858. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  859. Includes a comprehensive discussion of the mixed constitution in Antiquity that deals with the concept in the writings of Plato, Thucydides, and Aristotle as well as Polybius. Also considers the idea of the mixed constitution in 16th- to 18th-century England.
  860. Find this resource:
  861. Trompf, Garry W. 1979. The idea of historical recurrence in Western thought: From Antiquity to the Reformation. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  862. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  863. First two chapters focus on Polybius’s theory of anacyclosis or cycle of constitutions and its relationship to general ideas of historical recurrence in the ancient world.
  864. Find this resource:
  865. Walbank, Frank W. 1957–1979. A historical commentary on Polybius. 3 vols. Oxford: Clarendon.
  866. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  867. Still the authoritative commentary on Polybius.
  868. Find this resource:
  869. Roman Political Philosophy
  870.  
  871. Political philosophy in the Roman world has received increasing scholarly attention in recent years. Barnes and Griffin 1999 and Griffin and Barnes 1997 are important collections of papers related to this area. Hammer 2008 explores how later political theorists engaged and appropriated elements of Roman political philosophy. Kapust 2011 focuses on Roman contributions to republican thought. Laks and Schofield 1995 has several valuable papers related to Roman political philosophy. Hammer 2014 provides an overview of Roman political thought. Connolly 2014 is a theory-informed analysis of Republican political thought via a close reading of key texts.
  872.  
  873. Barnes, Jonathan, and Miriam T. Griffin, eds. 1999. Philosophia togata II: Plato and Aristotle at Rome. Oxford: Clarendon.
  874. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  875. The sequel to Griffin and Barnes 1997 includes articles on the comparative treatments of the mixed constitution by Polybius and Cicero, Cicero’s treatment of friendship and politics in his letters, and Plutarch’s Platonism and politics.
  876. Find this resource:
  877. Connolly, Joy. 2014. The life of Roman republicanism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
  878. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  879. Explores Roman republicanism through a close reading of Cicero, Sallust, and Horace. Explores such topics as antagonism, justice, judgment, and recognition from a perspective informed by modern theory.
  880. Find this resource:
  881. Griffin, Miriam T., and Jonathan Barnes, eds. 1997. Philosophia togata I: Essays on philosophy and Roman society. Oxford: Clarendon.
  882. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  883. Collection of seminal papers related to philosophy at Rome. Includes papers on Cicero; Plutarch; Lucretius; philosophy, politics, and politicians; and Roman rulers and philosophical advisors.
  884. Find this resource:
  885. Hammer, Dean. 2008. Roman political thought and the modern theoretical imagination. Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press.
  886. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  887. This book argues that Roman political thinkers articulated what it means to lose one’s political bearings and how they might be recovered. Dean proceeds by pairing four Romans with later theorists: Cicero with Arendt, Livy with Machiavelli, Tacitus with Montesquieu, and Seneca with Foucault.
  888. Find this resource:
  889. Hammer, Dean. 2014. Roman political thought: From Cicero to Augustine. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  890. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139031073Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  891. A comprehensive treatment of Roman political thought that adopts a chronological, author-by-author approach. Special attention is given to the extra-institutional aspects of political life.
  892. Find this resource:
  893. Kapust, Daniel J. 2011. Republicanism, rhetoric, and Roman political thought: Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  894. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511976483Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  895. Explores the contribution of Roman historians to republican political thought, by focusing particularly on these historians’ treatments of rhetoric, political conflict, and liberty.
  896. Find this resource:
  897. Laks, André, and Malcolm Schofield, eds. 1995. Justice and generosity: Studies in Hellenistic social and political thought; Proceedings of the Sixth Symposium Hellenisticum. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  898. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511518485Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  899. This collection of articles focuses more broadly on Hellenistic political thought but includes important papers on the political thought of Cicero and Seneca.
  900. Find this resource:
  901. Lucretius
  902.  
  903. Lucretius’s poem De rerum natura is the Epicurean text that has had the greatest impact on the history of political philosophy. Barbour 2007 focuses on the reception of the poem’s moral and political aspects. Nichols 1976, a monograph devoted to the work’s political philosophy, also includes a chapter on its reception. Strauss 2007 is an analysis by a political theorist. Fowler 1989 is a classic article on Lucretius’s treatment of politics. Schiesaro 2007 is an overview of the topic and is accessible to students. Schrijvers 1996 deals with Lucretius’s discussion of constitutions. Campbell 2003 focuses on Lucretius’s account of the evolution of human society.
  904.  
  905. Barbour, Reid. 2007. Moral and political philosophy: Readings of Lucretius from Virgil to Voltaire. In The Cambridge companion to Lucretius. Edited by Stuart Gillespie and Philip R. Hardie, 149–166. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  906. DOI: 10.1017/CCOL9780521848015Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  907. Approaches the moral and political philosophy of the poem, by focusing on the reception of these aspects from Virgil to Bacon.
  908. Find this resource:
  909. Campbell, Gordon Lindsay. 2003. Lucretius on creation and evolution: A commentary on De rerum natura, Book Five, lines 772–1104. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  910. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  911. Includes commentary on Lucretius’s account of the early evolution of human society, as well as extensive bibliography on the topic.
  912. Find this resource:
  913. Fowler, D. P. 1989. Lucretius and politics. In Philosophia togata I: Essays on philosophy and Roman society. Edited by Miriam T. Griffin and Jonathan Barnes, 120–150. Oxford: Clarendon.
  914. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  915. Classic article on Lucretius’s treatment of politics. Argues that the general Epicurean stance is to avoid politics. However, political participation may be justified in special circumstances.
  916. Find this resource:
  917. Nichols, James H., Jr. 1976. Epicurean political philosophy: The De rerum natura of Lucretius. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.
  918. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  919. The only monograph in English devoted exclusively to Lucretius’s political thought. Includes a useful discussion of its reception.
  920. Find this resource:
  921. Schiesaro, Alessandro. 2007. Lucretius and Roman politics and history. In The Cambridge companion to Lucretius. Edited by Stuart Gillespie and Philip R. Hardie, 41–58. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  922. DOI: 10.1017/CCOL9780521848015Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  923. Accessible overview of Lucretius’s treatment of the origins of political society, law, and religion.
  924. Find this resource:
  925. Schrijvers, Piet H. 1996. Lucretius on the origin and development of political life (De rerum natura 5.1105–1160). In Polyhistor: Studies in the history and historiography of ancient philosophy, presented to Jaap Mansfeld on his sixtieth birthday. Edited by Keimpe A. Algra, Pieter W. van der Horst, and David T. Runia, 220–230. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
  926. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  927. This short paper examines Lucretius’s discussion of constitutions and constitutional change in Book 5.
  928. Find this resource:
  929. Strauss, Leo. 2007. Notes on Lucretius. In Liberalism ancient and modern. By Leo Strauss, 76–139. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
  930. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  931. Originally published in 1968 (New York: Basic Books). Lengthy analysis of Lucretius’s poem, by well-known 20th-century political philosopher.
  932. Find this resource:
  933. Cicero
  934.  
  935. Cicero (b. 106–d. 43 BCE) was a Roman advocate, statesman, and philosopher who lived during the end of the Roman Republic. His political and philosophical writings have received increased attention in recent years. His three most important works of political philosophy are The Republic (De republica), the Laws (De legibus), and On Duties (De officiis). The most comprehensive account of Cicero’s political philosophy in English remains Wood 1988. Perelli 1990 is a valuable book-length study in Italian of Cicero’s political thought. Atkins 2000 is an excellent, accessible, shorter account of Cicero’s political thought. Connolly 2007 explores the connection between rhetoric and political thought in Cicero’s writings. Auvray-Assayas 2006 provides a unified perspective on Cicero’s philosophical works that stresses their relationship to politics. Baraz 2012 attempts something similar for the works of the 40s BCE. Nicgorski 2012 is a collection of articles on Cicero’s moral and political philosophy by leading scholars. Atkins 2013 provides a reading of Cicero’s The Republic and Laws with attention to Cicero’s contributions to the history of political philosophy.
  936.  
  937. Atkins, E. M. 2000. Cicero. In The Cambridge history of Greek and Roman political thought. Edited by Christopher J. Rowe and Malcolm Schofield, 477–516. Cambridge History of Political Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  938. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521481366Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  939. This overview of Cicero’s political thought argues that Cicero creatively deploys philosophical resources to defend and rework aristocratic ideals.
  940. Find this resource:
  941. Atkins, Jed W. 2013. Cicero on politics and the limits of reason: The Republic and Laws. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  942. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781107338722Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  943. Shows how Cicero’s Republic and Laws are important for understanding the history of the concepts of rights, the mixed constitution, and natural law. Also explores Cicero’s relationship to Plato and assesses his usefulness for modern political philosophy.
  944. Find this resource:
  945. Auvray-Assayas, Clara. 2006. Cicéron. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
  946. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  947. Provides a reading of Cicero’s philosophical works from De oratore to De divinatione that emphasizes the relationship between his skepticism and political philosophy.
  948. Find this resource:
  949. Baraz, Yelena. 2012. A written republic: Cicero’s philosophical politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
  950. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  951. Focusing on Cicero’s prefaces, Baraz argues that his cycle of philosophical works completed under Caesar’s dictatorship represents a form of political engagement.
  952. Find this resource:
  953. Connolly, Joy. 2007. The state of speech: Rhetoric and political thought in ancient Rome. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
  954. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  955. Explores the relationship between rhetoric and republican political thought in Cicero’s dialogues and treatises.
  956. Find this resource:
  957. Nicgorski, Walter, ed. 2012. Cicero’s practical philosophy. Notre Dame, IN: Univ. of Notre Dame Press.
  958. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  959. Provides a number of articles on themes related to Cicero’s political philosophy written by Latinists, philosophers, and political scientists.
  960. Find this resource:
  961. Perelli, Luciano. 1990. Il pensiero politico di Cicerone: Tra filosofia greca e ideologia aristocratica romana. Florence: La Nuova Italia.
  962. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  963. Argues that Cicero was a conservative defender of aristocratic ideals. Also discusses the relationship between Greek theory and Roman practice.
  964. Find this resource:
  965. Wood, Neal. 1988. Cicero’s social and political thought. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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  967. Still the most comprehensive account of Cicero’s political thought in English. Focus is mainly on providing an accessible overview of Cicero’s main political ideas. Emphasizes Cicero’s defense of private property.
  968. Find this resource:
  969. Texts and Translations
  970.  
  971. Of Cicero’s works of political philosophy, the text of The Republic (De republica) in particular needs to be addressed because of its unique history. With the exception of the concluding “Dream of Scipio” and fragments preserved in later works, the text of De republica was completely lost from the 7th century until the 19th. Even now only approximately a third of the work is extant. Texts frequently used include Cicero 1969 and Cicero 1928. Cicero 2006 is quickly becoming the standard. Cicero 1998 and Cicero 1999 are good translations based on different editions of the Latin text.
  972.  
  973. Cicero, Marcus Tullius. 1928. De re publica and De legibus. Edited and translated by Clinton Walker Keyes. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
  974. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  975. Standard text and translation in the English-speaking world of Cicero’s De republica and De legibus for much of the 20th century.
  976. Find this resource:
  977. Cicero, Marcus Tullius. 1969. De re publica: Librorum sex quae manserunt septimum recognovit. Edited by Konrat Ziegler. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner.
  978. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  979. Frequently used Latin text for Cicero’s De republica. The text underlying Cicero 1999.
  980. Find this resource:
  981. Cicero, Marcus Tullius. 1998. The Republic, the Laws. Translated by Niall Rudd. Introduction and notes by J. G. F. Powell and Niall Rudd. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  982. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  983. Good translation based on an eclectic text that anticipates many editorial decisions found in Cicero 2006.
  984. Find this resource:
  985. Cicero, Marcus Tullius. 1999. Cicero: On the Commonwealth and on the Laws. Edited by James E. G. Zetzel. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  986. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511803635Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  987. Best English translation of De republica and De legibus. With helpful introduction and explanatory notes. The translation of De republica follows Cicero 1969.
  988. Find this resource:
  989. Cicero, Marcus Tullius. 2006. M. Tulli Ciceronis: De re publica, De legibus, Cato maior de senectute, Laelius de amicitia. Edited by J. G. F. Powell. Oxford Classical Texts. Oxford and New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
  990. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  991. The most recent Latin text for De republica and De legibus. Powell makes some substantial changes to the placement of fragments from the earlier editions. This text is becoming the new standard edition.
  992. Find this resource:
  993. The Republic (De Republica)
  994.  
  995. Powell and North 2001 is a collection of papers on key problems raised by The Republic. This dialogue focuses on constitutional theory and statesmanship. Nicgorski 1991 explores the dialogue’s shift in focus from the first to the second of these topics. Asmis 2005 examines Cicero’s treatment of the Roman mixed constitution. Atkins 2011 looks at the “Dream of Scipio” and its relationship to the rest of the dialogue. Schofield 1995 is a classical treatment of the dialogue’s famous definition of a res publica. Atkins 2013 treats a number of topics central to The Republic’s political theory.
  996.  
  997. Asmis, Elizabeth. 2005. A new kind of model: Cicero’s Roman constitution in De republica. American Journal of Philology 126.3: 377–416.
  998. DOI: 10.1353/ajp.2005.0036Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  999. Article comparing Cicero’s account of the mixed constitution with that of Polybius. Good source for further bibliography on Cicero’s constitutional theory.
  1000. Find this resource:
  1001. Atkins, Jed W. 2011. L’argument du De Republica et le Songe de Scipion. Les Études Philosophiques 99.4: 455–469.
  1002. DOI: 10.3917/leph.114.0455Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1003. Examines the role of the “Dream of Scipio” and its relationship to the preceding argument in The Republic.
  1004. Find this resource:
  1005. Atkins, Jed W. 2013. Cicero on politics and the limits of reason: The Republic and Laws. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  1006. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781107338722Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1007. Discusses a number of aspects of the work central to its political theory, including the dialogue form, the Dream of Scipio, the mixed constitution, liberty, citizens’ rights, and the definition of “res publica.”
  1008. Find this resource:
  1009. Nicgorski, Walter. 1991. Cicero’s focus: From the best regime to the model statesman. Political Theory 19.2: 230–251.
  1010. DOI: 10.1177/0090591791019002005Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1011. Examines, in light of Classical Greek political philosophy, Cicero’s decision to move away from constitutional theory to focus on statesmanship as The Republic progresses.
  1012. Find this resource:
  1013. Powell, J. G. F., and J. A. North, eds. 2001. Cicero’s Republic. Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies Supplement 76. London: Institute of Classical Studies.
  1014. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1015. Collection of papers on such aspects of Cicero’s Republic as its relationship to De legibus, Cicero’s exploitation of Roman history, the debate over natural justice in Book 3, citizenship and civil institutions, and the reception of the famous definition of res publica.
  1016. Find this resource:
  1017. Schofield, Malcolm. 1995. Cicero’s definition of res publica. In Cicero the philosopher: Twelve papers. Edited by J. G. F. Powell, 63–83. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  1018. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1019. Classic article on Cicero’s definition of res publica. Argues that through it Cicero raises the question of political legitimacy.
  1020. Find this resource:
  1021. The Laws (De Legibus)
  1022.  
  1023. Rawson 1973 is a classic paper outlining the various interpretive problems posed by De legibus. Perhaps the most difficult of these is the relationship between natural law in Book 1 and the ideal law code of Book 2 and Book 3. Girardet 1983 argues that they are identical, while Asmis 2008 offers a different perspective. Benardete 1987 offers a dialogical reading of Book 1, and Caspar 2011 offers a reinterpretation of the entire dialogue. Atkins 2013 devotes a chapter each to natural law and to the legislation of Cicero’s ideal law code.
  1024.  
  1025. Asmis, Elizabeth. 2008. Cicero on natural law and the laws of the state. Classical Antiquity 27.1: 1–33.
  1026. DOI: 10.1525/ca.2008.27.1.1Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1027. This article examines the relationship between natural law and the ideal law code of De legibus. Argues against Girardet 1983 that the latter is not identical to the former.
  1028. Find this resource:
  1029. Atkins, Jed W. 2013. Cicero on politics and the limits of reason: The Republic and Laws. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  1030. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781107338722Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1031. A reading of De legibus as a companion piece to De republica. Two chapters are devoted to De legibus. One chapter focuses on natural law and the second, on the relationship between natural law and the ideal law code.
  1032. Find this resource:
  1033. Benardete, Seth. 1987. Cicero’s De legibus I: Its plan and intention. American Journal of Philology 108.2: 295–309.
  1034. DOI: 10.2307/294818Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1035. Examines the Book 1 argument for natural law and its relationship to the dialogue form.
  1036. Find this resource:
  1037. Caspar, Timothy W. 2011. Recovering the ancient view of founding: A commentary on Cicero’s De legibus. Lanham, MD: Lexington.
  1038. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1039. This book by a historian of political thought methodically walks the reader through the dialogue. Seeks to uncover Cicero’s teaching about the relationship between politics and philosophy, which unifies the work as a whole.
  1040. Find this resource:
  1041. Girardet, Klaus M. 1983. Die Ordnung der Welt: Ein Beitrag zu philosophischen und politischen Interpretation von Ciceros Schrift De legibus. Wiesbaden, Germany: Franz Steiner.
  1042. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1043. Examines Cicero’s political reforms in De legibus. The most important aspect of this book is perhaps the influential thesis that Cicero identifies the ideal law code of Books 2 and 3 as the contents of the natural law of Book 1.
  1044. Find this resource:
  1045. Rawson, Elizabeth. 1973. The interpretation of Cicero’s De legibus. In Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt. Vol. 1.4. Edited by Wolfgang Haase and Hildegard Temporini, 334–356. Berlin: de Gruyter.
  1046. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1047. This important paper provides an overview of De legibus and the interpretive problems it poses for scholars.
  1048. Find this resource:
  1049. On Duties (De Officiis)
  1050.  
  1051. Cicero’s De officiis is his most influential work for the later history of political philosophy. Barlow 1999 discusses Cicero’s philosophical project while comparing it with Machiavelli’s response. Nussbaum 2000 discusses its legacy for cosmopolitanism. Long 1995 views Cicero’s project in De officiis in its political context. Annas 1989 raises the issue of Cicero’s treatment of Stoicism and property rights. Atkins 1990 examines Cicero’s treatment of the virtue of justice. Gill 1988 explores the connection between one’s social roles and duties. Cicero 1991 provides a good introduction for students.
  1052.  
  1053. Annas, Julia. 1989. Cicero on Stoic moral philosophy and private property. In Philosophia togata I: Essays on philosophy and Roman culture. Edited by Miriam T. Griffin and Jonathan Barnes, 120–150. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
  1054. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1055. This important article focuses on Cicero’s treatment of a debate between two Stoic philosophers in De officiis 3. It prompted several later papers on Cicero, the Stoics, and private property rights.
  1056. Find this resource:
  1057. Atkins, E. M. 1990. Domina et regina virtutum: Justice and Societas in De officiis. Phronesis 35.3: 258–289.
  1058. DOI: 10.1163/156852890X00187Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1059. Examines Cicero’s treatment of the virtue of justice and its political implications in De officiis.
  1060. Find this resource:
  1061. Barlow, J. J. 1999. The fox and the lion: Machiavelli replies to Cicero. History of Political Thought 20.4: 627–645.
  1062. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1063. Argues that Machiavelli’s Prince attempts to resolve tensions in Cicero’s De officiis, especially that between the lives of politics and philosophy.
  1064. Find this resource:
  1065. Cicero, Marcus Tullius. 1991. On duties. Edited and translated by Miriam T. Griffin and E. M. Atkins. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  1066. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1067. This excellent translation of Cicero’s De officiis also has a very good introduction.
  1068. Find this resource:
  1069. Gill, Christopher. 1988. Personhood and personality: The four-personae theory in Cicero, De officiis I. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 6:169–199.
  1070. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1071. Discusses Cicero’s appropriation of Panaetius’s account of how the duties of individual human beings are determined by various roles assigned to them.
  1072. Find this resource:
  1073. Long, Anthony A. 1995. Cicero’s politics in De officiis. In Justice and generosity: Studies in Hellenistic social and political philosophy; Proceedings of the Sixth Symposium Hellenisticum. Edited by André Laks and Malcolm Schofield, 213–240. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  1074. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511518485Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1075. Important article that focuses on Cicero’s use of philosophy to address problems posed by the instability of traditional Roman ideology.
  1076. Find this resource:
  1077. Nussbaum, Martha C. 2000. Duties of justice, duties of material aid: Cicero’s problematic legacy. Journal of Political Philosophy 8.2: 176–206.
  1078. DOI: 10.1111/1467-9760.00098Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1079. This paper is concerned with cosmopolitanism and the legacy of Cicero’s De officiis. Argues that modern philosophy has inherited from Cicero an untenable asymmetry concerning duties of justice and duties requiring material aid.
  1080. Find this resource:
  1081. Commentaries on Individual Works
  1082.  
  1083. All three of Cicero’s major works of political philosophy have detailed commentaries. Dyck 1996 is a detailed scholarly commentary for De officiis. Dyck 2004 is a detailed scholarly commentary for De legibus. Zetzel 1995 provides text and commentary for selections from De republica. There is no English-language commentary on the complete surviving text of De republica; however, Büchner 1984 accomplishes this for readers of German.
  1084.  
  1085. Büchner, Karl, ed. 1984. M. Tullius Cicero: De re publica; Kommentar. Heidelberg, Germany: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag.
  1086. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1087. Detailed scholarly commentary in German on the surviving text of De republica.
  1088. Find this resource:
  1089. Dyck, Andrew R. 1996. A commentary on Cicero, De officiis. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.
  1090. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1091. Detailed scholarly commentary in English on Cicero’s De officiis. Excellent and complete bibliography.
  1092. Find this resource:
  1093. Dyck, Andrew R. 2004. A commentary on Cicero, De legibus. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.
  1094. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1095. Detailed scholarly commentary in English on Cicero’s De legibus. Excellent and complete bibliography.
  1096. Find this resource:
  1097. Zetzel, James E. G. 1995. Cicero, De re publica: Selections. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  1098. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1099. Latin text and English commentary on selections from Cicero’s De republica, Books 1, 2, and 6.
  1100. Find this resource:
  1101. Roman Stoics
  1102.  
  1103. “Roman Stoics” refers to Stoic writers working in the Imperial period. The most important of these for political philosophy include Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius (the latter two cited under Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius).
  1104.  
  1105. Seneca
  1106.  
  1107. The life and thought of this Stoic philosopher, who also served as advisor to Nero, is most fully treated in Griffin 1976. Griffin 2000 is an excellent introduction to Seneca’s political thought for students. Cooper and Procopé 1995 contains useful introductions to several of Seneca’s key political writings. Inwood 2005 is a collection of essays by a leading scholar of Stoicism. Stacey 2007 contains an important chapter on Seneca’s theory of the prince.
  1108.  
  1109. Cooper, John M., and J. F. Procopé, eds. and trans. 1995. Seneca: Moral and political essays. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  1110. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1111. This translation of On Anger, On Mercy, On the Private Life, and On Favors has both a good general introduction to Seneca’s political philosophy and useful introductions to each of the political writings included in the volume. Very useful for students.
  1112. Find this resource:
  1113. Griffin, Miriam T. 1976. Seneca: A philosopher in politics. Oxford: Clarendon.
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  1115. The classic scholarly work on Seneca’s political philosophy. Includes chapters on Seneca’s view of the principate, slavery, and political participation.
  1116. Find this resource:
  1117. Griffin, Miriam T. 2000. Seneca and Pliny. In The Cambridge history of Greek and Roman political thought. Edited by Christopher J. Rowe and Malcolm Schofield, 532–558. Cambridge History of Political Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  1118. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521481366Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1119. Excellent overview of Seneca as a political philosopher.
  1120. Find this resource:
  1121. Inwood, Brad. 2005. Reading Seneca: Stoic philosophy at Rome. Oxford: Clarendon.
  1122. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1123. Contains several essays with implications for political philosophy (e.g., one chapter focuses on natural law; another explores whether Seneca is able to reconcile standard Stoic rigorous ethical perspectives with everyday political life).
  1124. Find this resource:
  1125. Stacey, Peter. 2007. Roman monarchy and the Renaissance prince. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  1126. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511490743Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1127. Chapter 1, “The Roman Theory of Monarchy,” explores how Seneca defends the subjection of the Roman populus to a princeps. This lengthy chapter is an important scholarly account of Seneca’s theory of the prince.
  1128. Find this resource:
  1129. Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius
  1130.  
  1131. Ironically, the philosophy of Rome’s philosopher-slave Epictetus greatly shaped the philosophy of Rome’s philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius. Gill 2000 provides an accessible overview of the thought both of Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus. Brunt 1998 discusses Aurelius’s view of slavery. Long 2002 is an excellent study of Epictetus’s philosophy. Annas 2007 examines the social embeddedness of Epictetus’s moral philosophy.
  1132.  
  1133. Annas, Julia. 2007. Epictetus on moral perspectives. In The philosophy of Epictetus. Edited by Theodore Scaltsas and Andrew S. Mason, 140–152. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  1134. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199233076.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1135. Argues that Epictetus’s Stoicism does not lead to political quietism.
  1136. Find this resource:
  1137. Brunt, P. A. 1998. Marcus Aurelius and slavery. In Modus operandi: Essays in honour of Geoffrey Rickman. Edited by Michel Austin, Jill Harries, and Christopher John Smith, 139–148. London: Institute of Classical Studies.
  1138. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1139. A useful overview of Marcus Aurelius’s views of slavery, which are compared with the specifications of Roman law on the topic.
  1140. Find this resource:
  1141. Gill, Christopher. 2000. Stoic writers of the Imperial era. In Cambridge history of Greek and Roman political thought. Edited by Christopher J. Rowe and Malcolm Schofield, 597–615. Cambridge History of Political Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  1142. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521481366Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1143. Accessible introduction to Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius.
  1144. Find this resource:
  1145. Long, Anthony A. 2002. Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic guide to life. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
  1146. DOI: 10.1093/0199245568.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1147. Important account of Epictetus’s philosophy, by a leading scholar of Stoicism.
  1148. Find this resource:
  1149. Platonism in the Roman Empire
  1150.  
  1151. Though perhaps lacking the visibility of Stoicism at imperial courts, Platonism provided a significant perspective from which to address political questions throughout the imperial period.
  1152.  
  1153. Philo of Alexandria
  1154.  
  1155. This Jewish biblical exegete wrote in the first half of the 1st century CE. Though influenced by other philosophies, his thinking on politics owes much to the philosophy of Plato. The most extensive treatment of Philo’s political philosophy is Goodenough 1938. Barraclough 1984 is a more recent assessment.
  1156.  
  1157. Barraclough, Ray. 1984. Philo’s politics: Roman rule and Hellenistic Judaism. In Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt. Vol. 2.21.1. Edited by Wolfgang Haase and Hildegard Temporini, 417–553. Berlin: de Gruyter.
  1158. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1159. Best extensive overview of Philo’s political thought. Discusses the political context in which Philo wrote, his use of Greek philosophy, his attitudes toward Roman rule and Jewish nationalism, his theory of political rule, and law and justice.
  1160. Find this resource:
  1161. Goodenough, Erwin R. 1938. The politics of Philo Judaeus: Practice and theory. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.
  1162. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1163. This seminal analysis of Philo’s political thought still has value.
  1164. Find this resource:
  1165. Plutarch
  1166.  
  1167. Plutarch of Chaeronea (b. 45–d. 100 CE) was the most important Platonic political philosopher of the imperial period. Gallo and Scardigli 1995 is a collection of papers on the relationship between political theory and practice in the works of Plutarch. de Blois, et al. 2004 and de Blois, et al. 2005 are collections of essays on Plutarch’s views of statesmanship, broadly conceived. Dillon 1997 discusses Plutarch’s philosophy of history, Duff 2008 discusses Plutarch’s treatment of education, and Liebert 2009 addresses Plutarch’s treatment of Socrates’s ideal regime in Plato’s Republic.
  1168.  
  1169. de Blois, Lukas, Jeroen Bons, Ton Kessels, and Dirk M. Schenkeveld, eds. 2004. The statesman in Plutarch’s works: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of the International Plutarch Society, Nijmegen / Castle Hernen, May 1–5, 2002. Vol. 1, Plutarch’s statesman and his aftermath: Political, philosophical, and literary aspects. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
  1170. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1171. The first volume of the collected papers offered at the Sixth International Conference of the International Plutarch Society. These papers focus on the Moralia. Primarily for specialists in Plutarch.
  1172. Find this resource:
  1173. de Blois, Lukas, Jeroen Bons, Ton Kessels, and Dirk M. Schenkeveld, eds. 2005. The statesman in Plutarch’s works: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of the International Plutarch Society, Nijmegen / Castle Hernen, May 1–5, 2002. Vol. 2, The statesman in Plutarch’s Greek and Roman lives. Mnemosyne Supplementum 250.2. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
  1174. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1175. The second volume of the collected papers offered at the Sixth International Conference of the International Plutarch society. These papers focus on Plutarch’s Parallel Lives. Primarily for specialists in Plutarch.
  1176. Find this resource:
  1177. Dillon, John. 1997. Plutarch and the end of history. Paper presented at the conference of the International Plutarch Society held at Trinity College, Dublin, on 7–11 September 1994. In Plutarch and his intellectual world: Essays on Plutarch. Edited by Judith Mossman, 233–240. London: Duckworth.
  1178. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1179. Examines whether Plutarch believes human civilization has reached its end with the establishment of the Roman Empire.
  1180. Find this resource:
  1181. Duff, Timothy E. 2008. Models of education in Plutarch. Journal of Hellenic Studies 128:1–26.
  1182. DOI: 10.1017/S0075426900000033Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1183. Examines Plutarch’s treatment of education in his Parallel Lives.
  1184. Find this resource:
  1185. Gallo, Italo, and Barbara Scardigli, eds. 1995. Teoria e prassi politica nelle opere di Plutarco: Atti del V Convegno plutarcheo (Certosa di Pontignan, 7–9 giugno 1993). Naples, Italy: M. D’Auria.
  1186. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1187. The proceedings of the Third International Congress of the International Plutarch Society. Most papers are either in English or Italian. Papers explore a range of aspects of Plutarch’s political philosophy, including his views of education, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, rhetoric, ethics, and analyses of key figures in his Parallel Lives.
  1188. Find this resource:
  1189. Liebert, Hugh. 2009. Plutarch’s critique of Plato’s best regime. History of Political Thought 30.2: 251–271.
  1190. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1191. Explores Plutarch’s view of Socrates’s ideal regime in Plato’s Republic. Useful for scholars interested in Plutarch’s Platonism and the reception of Plato’s Republic.
  1192. Find this resource:
  1193. Platonists in Late Antiquity
  1194.  
  1195. Historians of political thought commonly assume that the so-called Neo-platonists of the Late Roman Empire did not contribute to political philosophy. O’Meara 2003, the only book-length study in English of the political philosophy of the Neo-platonists, challenges this view. Ehrhardt 1953 is a seminal article that tracks an increased interest in political philosophy among Neo-platonists. Jerphagnon 1990 discusses Plotinus’s attempt to establish a city of philosophers in Campania. Abbate 2006 discusses Proclus’s political philosophy, and Russell 2012 examines Olympiodorus’s political thought.
  1196.  
  1197. Abbate, Michele. 2006. Metaphysics and theology as methodological and conceptual paradigms in Proclus’ ethico-political theory. In Proklos: Methode, Seelenlehre, Metaphysik: Akten der Konferenz in Jena AM 18.–20. September 2003. Edited by Matthias Perkams and Rosa Maria Piccione, 186–200. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
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  1199. Discussion of Proclus’s political theory in his commentary on Plato’s Republic. Argues that Proclus identifies the One-Good as the unifying principle of Plato’s ideal city.
  1200. Find this resource:
  1201. Ehrhardt, Arnold. 1953. The political philosophy of neo-Platonism. In Studi in onore di Vincenzo Arangio-Ruiz nel XLV anno del suo insegnamento. Vol. 1. Edited by Mario Lauria, 457–482. Naples, Italy: Jovene.
  1202. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1203. Notes an increased interest in political philosophy among Neoplatonists, which he attributes to a reaction against Christianity.
  1204. Find this resource:
  1205. Jerphagnon, Lucien. 1990. Platonopolis ou Plotin entre le siècle et le rêve. In Néoplatonisme: Mélanges offerts à Jean Trouillard. 2d ed. Edited by P. M. Schuhl and Lucien Jerphagnon, 216–221. Fontenay-aux-Roses, France: E. N. S.
  1206. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1207. Originally published in 1981. Examines Porphyry’s account of Plotinus’s request of Gallienus to found a city of philosophers in Campania. Argues that this city was to be the realization of the ideal regime of Plato’s Laws.
  1208. Find this resource:
  1209. O’Meara, Dominic J. 2003. Platonopolis: Platonic political philosophy in Late Antiquity. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
  1210. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1211. A comprehensive survey of Neoplatonic discussions of politics. Challenges the conventional view that Platonic philosophers from Plotinus’s time on did not engage in political philosophy.
  1212. Find this resource:
  1213. Russell, Jeremiah. 2012. When philosophers rule: The Platonic academy and statesmanship. History of Political Thought 33.2: 209–230.
  1214. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1215. Argues that Olympiodorus followed Plato’s political teaching that regimes are better off when influenced by philosophy.
  1216. Find this resource:
  1217. Early Christian Political Philosophy
  1218.  
  1219. Early Christian political philosophy roughly stretches from the writers of the New Testament to the 5th century CE. Although the most extensive theoretical treatment of political themes is St. Augustine’s City of God, relevant analysis is also scattered throughout the writings of other Christian theologians, commentators, and apologists. Lunn-Rockliffe 2011 provides an accessible overview of early Christian political philosophy. Dvornik 1966 is a lengthy account of early Christian and Byzantine political philosophy. Burns 1988 includes accessible introductions to Byzantine political philosophy and the political thought of the Latin Fathers.
  1220.  
  1221. Burns, James H., ed. 1988. The Cambridge history of medieval political thought c. 350–c. 1450. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  1222. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521243247Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1223. Despite the title, includes helpful treatments of various aspects of early Christian political philosophy.
  1224. Find this resource:
  1225. Dvornik, Francis. 1966. Early Christian and Byzantine political philosophy: Origins and background. 2 vols. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies.
  1226. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1227. An encyclopedic account of early Christian and Byzantine political philosophy. These subjects are most directly addressed in Volume 2.
  1228. Find this resource:
  1229. Lunn-Rockliffe, Sophie. 2011. Early Christian political philosophy. In The Oxford handbook of the history of political philosophy. Edited by George Klosko, 142–155. Oxford and New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
  1230. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199238804.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1231. A brief thematic introduction to the subject, with basic bibliography.
  1232. Find this resource:
  1233. Texts and Translations
  1234.  
  1235. For the Greek and Latin texts, major series include Corpus Christianorum: Series Latina (1953–), Corpus Christianorum: Series Graeca (1977–), and Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (1866–). Sources Chrétiennes (1942–) provides the Greek or Latin text with a French translation on the facing page. The Loeb Classical Library, which provides Greek and Latin texts with a facing English translation, includes some relevant texts. The Fathers of the Church series (1947–) provides good English translations.
  1236.  
  1237. Corpus Christianorum: Series Graeca. 1977–. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols.
  1238. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1239. Critical editions of Greek Christian texts.
  1240. Find this resource:
  1241. Corpus Christianorum: Series Latina. 1953–. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols.
  1242. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1243. Critical editions of Latin Christian texts.
  1244. Find this resource:
  1245. Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum. 1866–. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
  1246. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1247. Critical editions of Latin Christian texts.
  1248. Find this resource:
  1249. Fathers of the Church. 1947–. Washington, DC: Catholic Univ. of America Press.
  1250. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1251. English translations of Christian texts.
  1252. Find this resource:
  1253. Sources Chrétiennes. 1942–. Paris: Editions du Cerf.
  1254. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1255. Provides Greek and Latin texts with facing French translations.
  1256. Find this resource:
  1257. Key Themes and Aspects of Individual Works
  1258.  
  1259. Brown 1992 is an important discussion of power. Garnsey 1996 includes a valuable discussion of slavery in early Christian thought. Garnsey 2007 focuses on property. Lactantius 2003 contains an important introductory essay by Garnsey that deals with the apologist’s social and political ideas. Lunn-Rockliffe 2007 discusses the political theology of Ambrosiaster. Atkins 2011 examines St. Ambrose’s transformation of aspects of Cicero’s moral and political philosophy.
  1260.  
  1261. Atkins, Jed W. 2011. The officia of St. Ambrose’s De officiis. Journal of Early Christian Studies 19.1: 49–78.
  1262. DOI: 10.1353/earl.2011.0003Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1263. Discusses Ambrose’s transformation of Cicero’s ethics in De officiis.
  1264. Find this resource:
  1265. Brown, Peter. 1992. Power and persuasion in Late Antiquity: Towards a Christian empire. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press.
  1266. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1267. Looks at imperial power and ways in which it may be amenable to persuasion. Pays special attention to the role of the philosopher as political advisor.
  1268. Find this resource:
  1269. Garnsey, Peter. 1996. Ideas of slavery from Aristotle to Augustine. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  1270. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1271. An accessible overview of the attitudes toward and theories of slavery in the ancient world. Includes treatments of slavery in the thought of several important early Christians.
  1272. Find this resource:
  1273. Garnsey, Peter. 2007. Thinking about property: From Antiquity to the age of revolution. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  1274. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511482786Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1275. Chapters 3–5 deal with property in the thought of the early church, Origen, Cyprian, Clement, Chrysostom, Lactantius, Ambrose, and Augustine. Book is accessible to students as well as scholars.
  1276. Find this resource:
  1277. Lactantius. 2003. Divine institutes. Translated with introduction and notes by Anthony Bowen and Peter Garnsey. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool Univ. Press.
  1278. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1279. Introduction is an accessible account of Lactantius’s social and political ideas.
  1280. Find this resource:
  1281. Lunn-Rockliffe, Sophie. 2007. Ambrosiaster’s political theology. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  1282. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199230204.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1283. Discusses Ambrosiaster’s political ideas and their relationship to his theology.
  1284. Find this resource:
  1285. St. Augustine
  1286.  
  1287. The bibliography on Augustine is immense, even if one limits oneself to English. The list here includes some of the most basic and influential works. Augustine’s most important work dealing with political philosophy is The City of God. Thus, it is at the center of most scholarly works dealing with Augustine’s political thought. For other works by Augustine dealing with politics, readers can consult Augustine 2001. Deane 1963 is an influential overview of St. Augustine’s political ideas that still retains value. A more recent and accessible account is Weithman 2001. Niebuhr 1953 emphasizes Augustine’s realism. Markus 1988 is an important account of Augustine’s views of human society and history. Von Heyking 2001 counters realist interpretations of Augustine’s political thought by aligning him more closely with the classical tradition. Dodaro 2004 focuses on how Augustine conceives the just society. Rist 1994 shows how Augustine transformed classical philosophy.
  1288.  
  1289. Augustine. 2001. Political writings. Translated by E. Margaret Atkins and Robert A. Dodaro. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  1290. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1291. This collection of sermons, commentaries, and letters that deal with political themes is designed to supplement Augustine’s more theoretical treatment of political themes in The City of God. It includes a useful introduction by the editors.
  1292. Find this resource:
  1293. Deane, Herbert A. 1963. The political and social ideas of St. Augustine. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.
  1294. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1295. Important monograph on Augustine’s political thought. Still useful even if more-recent work has revised aspects of Deane’s account. Emphasizes Augustine’s realism.
  1296. Find this resource:
  1297. Dodaro, Robert. 2004. Christ and the just society in the thought of Augustine. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  1298. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511487668Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1299. Focuses on Augustine’s analysis of the perfectly just society.
  1300. Find this resource:
  1301. Markus, Robert A. 1988. Saeculum: History and society in the thought of St. Augustine. 2d ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  1302. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1303. A classic analysis of St. Augustine’s view of human society in relation to history. Originally published in 1970; paperback reissue in 2010.
  1304. Find this resource:
  1305. Niebuhr, Reinhold. 1953. Augustine’s political realism. In Christian realism and political problems. By Reinhold Niebuhr, 119–146. New York: Charles Scribner’s.
  1306. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1307. Classic article by an important political theologian on the nature of Augustine’s realism.
  1308. Find this resource:
  1309. Rist, John M. 1994. Augustine: Ancient thought baptized. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  1310. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511520228Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1311. An excellent analysis of St. Augustine’s philosophy—including his political philosophy—in light of Classical Greek and Roman philosophy.
  1312. Find this resource:
  1313. von Heyking, John. 2001. Augustine and politics as longing in the world. Columbia: Univ. of Missouri Press.
  1314. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1315. Argues that St. Augustine is a natural right thinker in the Aristotelian-Platonic tradition.
  1316. Find this resource:
  1317. Weithman, Paul. 2001. Augustine’s political philosophy. In The Cambridge companion to Augustine. Edited by Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann, 234–252. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  1318. DOI: 10.1017/CCOL0521650186Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1319. Overview of Augustine’s political thought; accessible to students.
  1320. Find this resource:
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